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Hume on being a philosopher

I’m teaching Hume’s first Enquiry in Modern Philosophy this week and had forgotten the terrific introduction about the role and nature of a philosopher. To wit: Obscurity, indeed, is painful to the mind as well as to the eye; but to bring light from obscurity, by whatever labour, must needs be delightful and rejoicing. And: [...]

Posted 29 March 2011 Adam § , § Comments (0)

A problem with naturalizing Kant’s ethics

I haven’t posted much on philosophy this semester, mostly because my needs for philosophical discussion and expression are (for the first time in a long time) more than being met by the new job I’m at now. But with spring break coming around and most of the chores done around the house, I’ve had time [...]

Posted 13 March 2011 Adam § , , , § Comments (3)

Sandel’s online Justice Course

Cross-posted over at In Socrates’ Wake: I just came across this website (via Everyday Philosophy at the Purple Bike Café) that is gradually releasing videos from what appears to be a comprehensive introductory ethics course by Michael Sandel at Harvard. I’ve read Sandel, but I had no idea he was such a gifted lecturer. The [...]

Posted 04 October 2009 Adam § , , § Comments (0)

Meaning of Life Cats (MoL Cats)

see more Lolcats and funny pictures see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Posted 09 June 2009 Adam § , § Comments (3)

Late night thoughts

The real tragedy of this election is that far too many Americans believe that the other side is not just wrong about the issues, but fundamentally deceived by one of the candidates. This may be the most prominent symptom of an unhealthy democracy. For a long time now, I’ve taken idea of villains who fought [...]

Posted 20 October 2008 Adam § , § Comments (3)

Quick question about free will

I haven’t read much of the modern literature on the libertarian view of freedom of the will, but I’m wondering what they say about children. It seems like compatibilists and hard determinists can easily account for most people’s intuition that children are less morally responsible for their actions than adults. The causal pathway to their [...]

Posted 15 July 2008 Adam § , § Comments (2)

Aristotelian Society… Sigh

Posted 25 January 2008 Adam § § Comments (2)

The Aristotelian Society

I’ve been reading articles from the Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society since I was an undergrad. I think in the back of my mind I knew it was in London. So I was looking for possible philosophy talks to go to while I’m over here (for the record, the Fixtures List is incredibly useful for [...]

Posted 21 January 2008 Adam § § Comments (5)

David Hume

Almost everyone who reads this blog and has read David Hume knows that I’m not a Humean. At least when it comes to ethics, I trace my leanings back to his arch-rival, Kant. But that doesn’t mean he wasn’t an amazing philosopher, and I was very proud to see that Edinburgh, his hometown, had erected [...]

Posted 06 January 2008 Adam § , § Comments (3)

Are Ethicists more Ethical?

I wanted to get in on this discussion, started by a draft essay posted at Experimental Philosophy last week, but last week turned out to be pretty busy. The essay documents a survey of philosophers and ethicists as to the ethical behavior of ethicists. There is another sub-issue that one of the co-authors writes about [...]

Posted 12 November 2007 Adam § , , § Comments (5)