In my Intro. course, we read Descartes’ Meditations, in part using it to introduce the complicated and important set of issues known as the mind-body problem. The most ancient account of the mind-body relation is dualism, the view that the mind and the body are two different types of stuff that are temporarily joined. The […]
Mind-body dualism or physicalism? [Introduction to Philosophy] Read More »
Eight billion human beings. Yet: * Only about 500 million run or jog regularly, and only about 75 million have completed a 5K race. So less than 1% have all the 5K completion certificates and trophies. Such unequal distribution of certificates? * Only about 500 million have college degrees, and less than 70 million have
Inequality of anything Read More »
Many style guides for men’s wear will tell you never to use the bottom button on your suit. It is simply not done. I heard the rule as a young man when I wore a suit for the first time and mentions of it many times since. But why? Here’s the answer: “The tradition originated
The Bottom Button Rule on a man’s suit — a gripe Read More »
My publisher in Pakistan, Muhammad Fahad, sent me this interior cover design for the forthcoming edition: Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault will be published in Pakistan in both Urdu and English editions. Dr. Nazir Azad’s translation of EP was also published in India in 2023. Urdu is the first or second
Cover for Pakistani edition of *Explaining Postmodernism* Read More »
From philosopher Miguel de Unamuno’s The Tragic Sense of Life, which I re-read for the first time since my undergraduate days. Note these arresting lines: “A human soul is worth all the universe, someone — I know not whom — has said and said magnificently. A human soul, mind you! Not a human life. Not
Does religion make you more warlike? Unamuno on war and the soul Read More »
Khayyâm was a Persian astronomer-poet and free-thinker. From his Rubáiyát: And do you think that unto such as youA maggot-minded, starved, fanatic crewGod gave a secret, and denied it me?Well, well—what matters it? Believe that, too! More on Khayyâm here. Related: My article No Reformation for Islam, Please, on why Islam needs reforming but not
Poet Omar Khayyâm (1048–1131) on the Islamists of his era Read More »
Some fascinating glimpses of Franz Liszt, the virtuoso pianist and composer. Biographer Alan Walker writes:
More on how great artists become great: Liszt Read More »
Bulletin: Sex and Economics — A Modest Proposal Fellow citizens: Our nation’s sex life is in peril. Surveys show widespread sexual discontent. Market failure is everywhere. Many males complain of not getting enough sex and many females object to constant male looks and advances. Other males are dissatisfied with the options available in their local
From the Office of the Reproducer-General Read More »