Category Archives: Philosophy

Deep Questions and Tribal Answers

Posted on Friday 6 October 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Science fiction and philosophy; The next frontier of book bans; Ken Ham rues the difficulty of indoctrinating children; Paul Krugman on voters, and why conservatives still think the economy is bad. Big Think, Jonny Thomson, 3 Oct 2023: Apocalypse philosophy: … Continue reading →

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Change, and Conservative Retribution

Posted on Monday 4 September 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

A NY Times essay about why to stop resisting change; How the Republicans intend to impeach President Biden purely as a matter of retribution, without any evidence of any crimes committed. Here’s a curious piece from Sunday’s NY Times, though … Continue reading →

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Items about the 20% and the 1%

Posted on Sunday 27 August 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Vivek Ramaswamy’s simplistic 10 “truths” includes one about the primacy of the nuclear family (compare my post two days ago); E.J. Dionne Jr. about how Republicans are focused on three different “yesterdays,” all since the 1980s, and not the future; … Continue reading →

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Three Philosophical/Scientific Matters

Posted on Sunday 23 July 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

I’m spending most of today’s blog hour doing some housekeeping on the blog itself. For today’s post, just one item, sorta deep, sorta light. Big Think, Scotty Hendricks, 18 Jul 2023: 3 advances in philosophy that made science better, subtitled … Continue reading →

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Consciousness and Choices

Posted on Thursday 13 July 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

The problem of consciousness, and the resolution to a 25-year-old debate, via Vox and NYT’s Carl Zimmer; The paradox of choice, in supermarkets and everywhere else, in our abundant, materialistic world. Vox, Oshan Jarow, 30 Jun 2023: Why scientists haven’t … Continue reading →

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Ted Chiang, Carl Sagan, Peter Singer

Posted on Monday 5 June 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Ten Chiang characterizes the current examples of “artificial intelligence” as “applied statistics”; How Carl Sagan was wrong about the “reptilian brain”, in The Dragons of Eden; And an interview with Peter Singer, the controversial philosopher, author of The Expanding Circle … Continue reading →

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Last Questions and Possible Answers, 2

Posted on Friday 2 June 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

This is a sequel to a post I did back in March, Last Questions and Possible Answers, 1, in which I considered the John Brockman book The Last Unknowns, in which he gathers deep unanswered questions about “the universe, the … Continue reading →

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Progressions

Posted on Wednesday 29 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Topics in this post: The success of wokeness. How the least religious nations are among the healthiest along many measures. Partha Dasgupta on how the GDP should account for the cost of what we use. Julian Baggini on philosophy and … Continue reading →

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Last Questions and Possible Answers, 1

Posted on Friday 24 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

When I was browsing through several John Brockman books a few weeks ago, I decided to buy the last one he published in that series, from 2019. It’s called The Last Unknowns, and instead of gathering answers from many contributors … Continue reading →

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Items from Big Think about Science and Philosophy

Posted on Monday 27 February 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

How fast is the Earth moving, and in what direction? How the ancient Greek philosophers were mostly wrong but blazed conceptual trails. And thought experiments that challenge conventional thinking.

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