Adding philosophical depth to anything and everything
Philosophy in the real world.
David Hume was a Scottish philosopher in the mid 1700s. His philosophy was a culmination of British empiricism. This was a tradition that began with Francis Bacon and continued through Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and then was critiqued rather effectively by George Berkeley. Berkeley had said that it is […]
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Epistemology is the philosophical study of what knowledge is and how we can come to have knowledge. It is a field of philosophy as old as philosophy itself, and epistemology underpins everything in philosophy, and not just philosophy, but everything that human beings do. Thomas Hobbes and John Locke […]
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People are smart. We call ourselves Homo sapiens for a reason. People are smart enough to figure out how to go to the moon. So why do a small minority of people choose to believe we didn’t go to the moon, or stupid things like that the Earth is flat, […]
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I received a letter (yes, some people still send paper letters!) that contained a lovely quote from Max Planck. A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die. Perhaps Planck was being metaphorical about “dying,” […]
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Text transcript, lightly edited for readability. Douglas Giles The topic of Artificial intelligence, or AI, has been all over the news lately, quite often discussed with a sense of foreboding doom and a plea for someone to do something to save us from the effects of AI. Much of […]
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One of my favorite historical stories is that of miasma theory. It is also known as the theory that bad air causes disease. The scientific word “miasma” comes from ancient Greek and means “pollution.” More common usage adopted the medieval Italian word “malaria,” meaning “bad air.” As you probably have […]
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Philosophy deals with the biggest and most complex issues facing humanity and philosophical insights underpin all human endeavors. Because the questions considered by philosophy are so large and complicated, philosophy itself is a long conversation about those issues among many people across many years. To compare past perspectives with our […]
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Hannah Arendt is very well known in continental philosophical circles. She remains fairly unfairly unknown outside of continental philosophy circles. Arendt is best known for her book Eichmann in Jerusalem, A Report on the Banality of Evil. That book was her report of the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf […]
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Two blocks from my home in Prague is my local pub. Once a week on average, I take a little table in the corner, converse with the owner and bartenders, and have a nice burger and beer. It is a part of my life, a pleasurable, brief escape from my […]
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My most popular Medium article, at least for now, is “Buddhism Is Wrong.” It was inspired by my spouse who sent to me a video of a lecture from a Hollywood celebrity. The article received many great, thoughtful, and supportive comments. It also received some rude and insulting comments. The […]
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