Category Archives: Epistemology

Kant: Finding a Way In

Posted on March 25, 2023 by Bob Shepherd

OK. This is rough, and I’ll be revising it. But I just prepared this for a friend, and I thought I would share it. for BrookeReading Kant is notoriously difficult. One reason for this difficulty is that he didn’t have … Continue reading →

Posted in Epistemology, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Time | 3 Comments

Honesty about Religion

Posted on July 16, 2022 by Bob Shepherd

I know that people are supposed to “show respect” to religious belief–that that’s a widely held position. But I don’t have any respect for it. I have precisely the opposite. It seems to me breathtakingly ironic that religions make claims … Continue reading →

Posted in Epistemology, Metaphysics, Religion | 6 Comments

Things I Worry About: How Alternative Fact Worldviews Enable Fascism

Posted on June 1, 2022 by Bob Shepherd

George Santayana, in Reason in Religion, makes the argument that religion serves the same sort of purposes that poetry does and that, while not literally true,* is nonetheless elevating. William James, in Varieties of Religious Experience, makes a pragmatic argument … Continue reading →

Posted in Epistemology, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion, Trump (Don the Con) | 4 Comments

Education Reform as Religious Cultism

Posted on January 5, 2022 by Bob Shepherd

Numerology is pseudoscience involving numbers. Lots of Americans, for example, believe in what they call angel numbers—what you see when look at a clock and it reads 1:11 or 2:22 or 3:33, etc. Each of these repeated sequences of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Ed Reform, Epistemology | 2 Comments

The EZ Guide to Becoming a Cult Leader

Posted on November 16, 2020 by Bob Shepherd

I hope that these guidelines will help people to recognize the insidious, manipulative means by which the evil scam artists who run cults operate. Just about all cults rely on these means of manipulation. DON’T FALL FOR THEM! Make a … Continue reading →

Posted in Epistemology, Philosophy, Religion, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Science and Ethics

Posted on March 5, 2020 by Bob Shepherd

Why Ethical Statements Are Not Merely Matters of Opinion Ideas matter. Over time, some spread virally and have consequences far beyond their place of origin. In our time, in which philosophy has become, alas, an academic discipline far removed from … Continue reading →

Posted in Epistemology, Philosophy | 4 Comments

A Brief Explanation of Everything. You’re Welcome.

Posted on February 8, 2020 by Bob Shepherd

NB: The following is a story. It is not fact. It is based in facts, yes, but it is entirely speculative. This was an exercise I set myself to create a myth that is completely consistent with current scientific understandings. … Continue reading →

Posted in Epistemology, Existentialism, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Religion, Short Stories | 3 Comments

Why Science Fiction Is Impossible: A Science Fiction Writer’s Confession

Posted on January 20, 2020 by Bob Shepherd

When I was still a child, I fell in love with Sci Fi. I stayed up nights devouring stories and then novels by Asimov and Heinlein, Clarke and Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut, Philip K. Dick, Ursula K. LeGuin, Poul Anderson, Frederick … Continue reading →

Posted in Epistemology, Short Stories, Teaching Literature and Writing | 2 Comments

Using Derrida, from Notes to Krystalina

Posted on March 18, 2019 by Bob Shepherd

This is from a book-length work that I’ve been working on for many years. 2.1 Every actor has had The Actor’s Nightmare. You find yourself on stage, with a set and properties and another actor, but you haven’t any memory … Continue reading →

Posted in Epistemology, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Teaching Literature and Writing, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Theology of Materialism

Posted on March 17, 2019 by Bob Shepherd

In 1996, the Catholic Church finally officially admitted that it had made a mistake in trying and convicting Galileo. It only took them 363 years to do so. It’s difficult for people to make adjustments in their theologies. In the … Continue reading →

Posted in Epistemology, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind | 1 Comment