Philosophy & Ethics

In watching a recent discussion about "free will", I was surprised as to how quickly the discussion got confused by conflating "free choice" with "free will".[Day 2, Afternoon, First Session:  Free Will/Consciousness] In this article, I will attempt to better define some of these concepts to illustrate why "free will" is an illusion. To begin, let's define "choice" as an event that occurs in which a decision point is reached.  Regardless of how many apparent choices one has, they always reduce to one decision.  In addition, we may recognize that certain choices may eliminate…

Those who know the meaning of ‘third culture’, know that since the days when it was lamented that the members of the intellectual elite would not even know the second law of thermodynamics, the land grab of science has been astounding and is indeed an ongoing coming to power by science.  But while we came to enjoy being the new bully, we of course, and conveniently so, blunted our capacity to criticize power structures, partially due to the momentum of defending our ascent as emancipative enlightenment, digging in to fortify what previously still could have been seen as defense against…

If 41 percent of the human genome is covered by longer DNA patents that often cover whole genes, and so many genes share similar sequences within their genetic structure that if all of the "short sequence" patents were allowed in aggregate they could account for 100 percent of the genome, then you don't own your genes. Genes are the cellular chemicals that define who we are on a physical level and determine what diseases are a greater risk factor for each of us.  We're born with them, we each own them even if we are all born with most of the same ones. Possession of our genes is a…

Thomas Nagel wrote one lucky paper back almost half a century ago, titled “What Is it Like to Be a Bat?”.  That title went down so well, he has basically made a living from this alone ever since.  Recently, he went fully down the path trodden by many a noble prize winner: Pseudoscience!  I did also not believe this initially, but do read outtakes (e.g. here) from his 2012 book “Mind and Cosmos” if you don’t believe me:  It is not academic sophistry that reformulates “causality” to give meaning to “teleology”, but Thomas indeed, don’t fall from your chair now, advances…

If you're a taxpayer in the UK, you get medical care for free - even if it's nothing at all. A survey  conducted by the Universities of Oxford and Southampton found that 97% of UK doctors registered with the General Medical Council (GMC) have prescribed placebo treatments to patients at least once in their career.  'Impure' placebos are treatments that are unproven, such as antibiotics for suspected viral infections, or more commonly non-essential physical examinations and blood tests performed to reassure patients. 'Pure' placebos are treatments such as sugar pills or saline…

The title should be: Reformulating the Postmodern Core Insight versus Consistency as Absolute Meta-Truth:  Last Bastion against New Totalitarianism - or some such, however, the software does not support the length.  Anyway, let us start: Can anything fundamental be described and what is the, potentially undesired, outcome if we should succeed?   Answering the Death of the Author with the Suicide of the Author*1 is honest only without hope for an afterlife or sneaky preparation of the resurrection out of the ashes, and so, though partially dishonest, I consciously present what…

Damon Linker at theweek.com laments yet another new atheist manifesto, this time by British “philosopher” Grayling with his forthcoming book “The God Argument”.  Damon is looking for me it seems, the title of his article asking:  Where are the honest atheists?   Damon’s article hits on many big names to get attention and fill volume; the gist is:   1) New atheists do not admit that illusions are fundamental to human wellbeing. 2) They again and again and over again write just the stuff that sells well in order to sell well.   Damon is correct and correct, and he even…

As readers of this blog know, I am not sympathetic to extreme reductionism, and reject both it and determinism in favor of a robust concept of emergence. Of course, I think a moderate epistemic reductionism has been the winning approach for science, and I agree that there is plenty of room for some degree of ontological reductionism (i.e., some times the whole is just the sum of its parts). But I’m not a fan of the everything-is-an-illusion-because-of-reductionism school of thought that seems so popular among skeptics and some scientists these days (see, for instance, my take on…

However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them? (Buddha) It is folly for a man to pray to the gods for that which he has the power to obtain by himself. (Epicurus) Adapt yourself to the things among which your lot has been cast and love sincerely the fellow creatures with whom destiny has ordained that you shall live. (Marcus Aurelius) I have been pondering for a while that there are some striking similarities among the three ancient philosophies of Buddhism, Epicureanism and Stoicism. Let me premise that I don’t know as…

When fiscal hawk Sen. Tom Coburn set his sights on waste (funding humanities nonsense) and duplication at the National Science Foundation, there was outrage that a politician might actually look out for how taxpayer money was used. Well, scientists were right to object even if they were wrong. Smart people in science know we wasted $72 billion in subsidies for energy companies with the right political connections in the last four years, I would rather have had that money used for basic research, and a Navy destroyer that costs $6 billion each is a head-scratcher, but that doesn't mean we…