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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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 Department of Great Putdowns: Heine on de Musset and Kant
The satirist, poet, and radical Heinrich Heine described poet Alfred de Musset as “a young man with a great future behind him.” Ouch. Musset never forgave him. Heine is known to have fought in at least ten duels in his life. One wonders why. Heine also said this of Kant, describing his clockwork walks along
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Karl Popper | Science v. Pseudo-science | Philosophers, Explained | Stephen Hicks.
“Science: Conjectures and Refutations,” from Popper’s Conjectures and Refutations (1962). Key questions: Are Marxism and Freudianism pseudo-sciences like astrology and alchemy? What makes a theory genuinely scientific? Who are the great philosophers and what are their key ideas? From the beginning of philosophy in Greek myths to the influential thinkers of our own time, in
Karl Popper | Science v. Pseudo-science | Philosophers, Explained | Stephen Hicks. Read More »