Eric Schwitzgebel, Professor of Philosophy at University of California at Riverside, US (whom we recently featured for his ideas about the philosophical concept he calls ‘Crazyism’) is developing a Theory of Jerks. As part of this project, the professor is seeking examples of jerkish behavior. Here’s an instance – from ‘Anonymous’ : “At the gym […]
Tag: philosophy
‘Praying to stop being an atheist’ (paper)
Dr. Tim Mawson is Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at St Peter’s College, Oxford, UK. He’s the author of ‘Praying to stop being an atheist’ (International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, June 2010, Volume 67, Issue 3, pp 173-186) “In this paper, I argue that atheists who think that the issue of God’s existence or […]
Introducing a concept and/or a term: ‘Crazyism’
Just because the study of philosophy, metaphysics and ideologies goes back millennia, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t still room for a new ism. And one is envisioned in a new draft paper by professor Eric Schwitzgebel at the University of California, Riverside, US. He calls it “Crazyism” “Certain fundamental questions about the metaphysics of […]
Quoth the philosopher: About the Loop Case
Philosopher S. Matthew Liao writes, in his blog: …Our research applies this experimental philosophical methodology to Judith Jarvis Thomson’s famous Loop Case, which she used to call into question the validity of the intuitively plausible Doctrine of Double Effect. We found that intuitions about the Loop Case vary according to the context in which the […]
Stupidity – special issues
It was back in May last year that Improbable drew attention to the forthcoming special edition of the journal ‘parallax’ – the ‘Stupidity’ issue. We are delighted to announce that it’s no longer forthcoming, as it’s now been published. The journal carries at least four scholarly papers which focus directly on stupidity – and which […]
The Philosophy of Skin – It’s a wrap. (Thanks, Heidegger’s Verstehen!)
A great deal of academic research has focussed on skin. Indeed, skin regularly features heavily in several specialist scholarly journals – not only covering its behaviour and its problems, but also its aesthetics. But less weight has been afforded to inquiries regarding what might be called the the ‘philosophy’ of skin. The balance may have […]
CONCEPTS: FISH | BANANAS
Philosophers are sometimes faced with tackling the complex issues of ‘concepts’. Over the years, as an aid towards a better grasp of ‘concepts’, various standard examples have been developed. Take, for instance, PET FISH and MONSTER BANANAS (Note: the use of SMALL CAPS is traditional in the philosophical literature when dealing with CONCEPTS). Although their […]
Heidegger meets Macaroni in New York State
• Which came first, the hole or the macaroni? • And what would Heidegger have had to say about it? These questions have been examined in some detail by professor Gregg Lambert of Syracuse University, New York state. As readers may know (via his personal website) “Professor Lambert is internationally renowned for his scholarly writings…” […]
Vegetable philosophy
“There are not many of us doing vegetable philosophy, either professionally or casually.” – notes associate professor Karen L.F. Houle (from the Department of Philosophy at The University of Guelph, Canada) in a recent article for the Journal for Critical Animal Studies, Volume IX, Issue 1/2, 2011. Her paper, Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: Ethics as Extension […]
Pertinent Instances of Irrationality
QUESTION: Where would you go to find “Pertinent Instances of Irrationality“? ANSWER: George Metanomski’s The Second Enlightenment.