Israel: demographics
2024 estimates. Worth comparing the demographics of other Middle Eastern nations and groups.
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Philosophy
Mind-body dualism or physicalism? [Introduction to Philosophy]
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
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Inequality of anything
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
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The Bottom Button Rule on a man’s suit — a gripe
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
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Cover for Pakistani edition of *Explaining Postmodernism*
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
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RADICAL DOUBT: RENÉ DESCARTES. Lecture 2 of Modern Philosophy [Peterson Academy course]
“I think. Therefore, I am.” Lecture Two: Radical Doubt. René Descartes Themes: What can I doubt? Rationalism. Unintended Skepticism? God? External world? Dualism. Vesalius. Hobbes. Copernicus. Galileo. Pope Urban VIII. Text: Descartes: Meditations on First Philosophy. About the Instructor Stephen R. C. Hicks, Ph.D., has been Professor of Philosophy at Rockford University, Illinois; Visiting Professor
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Poet Omar Khayyâm (1048–1131) on the Islamists of his era
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
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THE BIRTH OF THE MODERN: FRANCIS BACON. Lecture 1 of Modern Philosophy [Peterson Academy course]
“Knowledge is Power.” Lecture One: The Birth of the Modern. Francis Bacon Themes: What is the Modern? 1500: Art. Science. Exploration. Religion. Economy. Politics. Individualism of independent thinking, Individualism of identity, and Individualism of worth. Galileo. Milton. Descartes. Empiricism. Experimentalism. Text: Bacon: The Great Instauration, esp. Novum Organon. About the Instructor Stephen R. C. Hicks,