Category Archives: Philosophy of Mind

Kant: Finding a Way In

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

A Brief Explanation of Everything. You’re Welcome.

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

Using Derrida, from Notes to Krystalina

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

A Solution to the Fermi Paradox

The current NASA estimate is that there are 19,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars in the observable universe that are Class G stars like ours AND that have at least one planet similar to Earth. That’s at least 19 SEXTILLION Earthlike planets, folks. No, … Continue reading

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Existentialism in Five Minutes | Bob Shepherd

“This was back in the days Of the folk music craze. . . . [and] parties to pay for the rent. We all wanted to be existentialists, but none of us knew what that meant.” –Michael Smith, “The Ballad of … Continue reading

Posted in Existentialism, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind | 6 Comments

The Theology of Materialism

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

The Vast Unseen and the Vast Unseeable: Reconciling Belief and Nonbelief

Those who are not philosophically inclined can be divided, roughly, into two groups: There are the Naïve Realists who think that what is available to the senses or potentially available to the senses is all that there is. And then … Continue reading

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Aidan Reading on the Way to Preschool

So, Aidan was asking whether I thought that the being of self-consciousness is such that in its being its being is in question, and I said, “Come on, Aidan, you’re old enough to figure that out for yourself,” which he … Continue reading

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

The Tractatus Comico-Philosophicus: Rene Descartes

Rene Descartes Explains It All to You Here’s my method: I start by trying to doubt everything. I realize, however, that I cannot doubt that I am doubting, that I am thinking. Therefore, I exist. (I think; therefore, I am.) … Continue reading

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Philosophical Zombies with Chairs in Philosophy of Mind

For Rebecca Goldstein Daniel Dennett called one of his books Consciousness Explained. He should have called it Why, Even with My Gifts, I Cannot Explain Consciousness Away. Dennett gives a compelling account of how various unconscious events occur in our … Continue reading

Posted in Metaphysics, Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind | 8 Comments