University of Pittsburgh philosophy professor Robert Brandom: “I want to start going back and looking at the roots of American pragmatism in the German Idealist tradition. I think developments over the last four decades have secured Immanuel Kant’s status as being for contemporary philosophers what the sea was for the poet Swinburne: ‘the great grey […]
Robert Brandom: Kant as “the great grey mother of us all” Read More »
From January 6-16 I’ll be giving a total of eight talks in Poland: Bydgoszcz, Chojnice, Warszawa, and Kraków. Several of the talks are tied to the newly-published Polish edition of my Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault. The Polish translation by Piotr Kostyło and Katarzyna Nowak was published as Zrozumieć postmodernizm. Sceptycyzm
Lecture tour in Poland, January 2017 Read More »
What explains the dramatic differences in economic performance between the two Americas? Take some World Bank GDP numbers — one measure of economic success. We want people to make an adequate living, especially poor people who are struggling. And if we are ambitious, we want people to live the good life — including expensive things
Comparing North and Latin America Economic Performance [Good Life series] Read More »
I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. I loafe and invite my soul, I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass. My tongue, every atom of my blood, formed from this soil, this
“Song of Myself,” Walt Whitman Read More »
First in a series tracking Donald Trump’s presidency and its anti-free-market policies. 1. Pence and Trump explicitly criticize free markets. The New York Times. 2. Direct dealing with an individual company: Carrier will not move. The Fiscal Times. 3. Close up parts of the Internet. “We’re losing a lot of people because of the Internet,”
Trump versus Free Markets, late 2016 edition Read More »
For use in my courses, additions to my Texts in Philosophy page. Mikhail Bakunin, God and the State (1871). René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy (1641). Fyodor Dostoyevsky “The Grand Inquisitor”, excerpted from The Brothers Karamazov (1880). William James, “What Makes a Life Significant?” (1900). Immanuel Kant, “Duties towards the Body in Respect of Sexual
Texts in Philosophy — late 2016 additions Read More »
In these days of cultural sensitivity, consider the saga of syphilis. Syphilis is thought to have been brought back from America by Christopher Columbus’s fellow travelers. In Europe, it first manifested in Naples and so came to be called “the disease of Naples,” though most Italians called it the “French Pox.” As it made its
Syphilis and friendly ethnic relations — updated Read More »
The Japanese are leading the way. Fascinating implications for the deep human need for companionship — interaction, visibility, and personal connection, even if simulated. Also: My related article on the ethics of sex with robots.
Want a Hologram Girlfriend and Assistant? Read More »