“technology cannot bring in the century of common man. It can merely reduce man to his lowest common denominator as a consuming animal. If technology is to minister to free men, men must struggle to acquire the practical disciplines related to speech as they have never struggled before. For in acquiring speech men acquire the [more …]
In many ways, Knobe is the closest thing experimental philosophy has to a rock star. Since last year, he’s been an essay contributor to the New York Times. An admirer from Australia maintains a Joshua Knobe fan page on Facebook. And a phenomenon bears his name: The Knobe Effect, derived from an experiment of his, [more …]
I believe the answer given by Paul Walorski here http://www.physlink.com/education/askexperts/ae86.cfm is incorrect in the statement, “The polarization of the first observed photon can be interpreted as nothing more than the measurement of a characteristic that was established back at the time both photons were created.” If it were true that “nothing more” than this is [more …]
“Our search for the ultimate meaning of our lives is not a matter of a particular intelligence, or some special effort, or even exceptional means. Rather, finding the ultimate truth is like discovering something beautiful along one’s path. One sees and recognizes it, if one is attentive. The issue then, is this attention.” Father Luigi Giussani
Philosophy student to professor: Can you prove that I exist? Professor to philosophy student: Who’s asking? I heard Rev. Kevin O’Neil of the Washington Theological Union gave a talk titled, “What am I Free For? Moral Theology in the Catholic Tradition.” The second point of his talk was in identifying “three questions to encompass the [more …]
They judge their moral success always by the fate of the world and never by the fate of their marriage. http://www.firstthings.com/article/2011/03/the-beauty-of-the-ethical
A secular-relativists Critique of the New Atheists ala Sam Harris http://www.thenation.com/article/160236/same-old-new-atheism-sam-harris?page=full “More a habit of mind than a rigorous philosophy, positivism depends on the reductionist belief that the entire universe, including all human conduct, can be explained with reference to precisely measurable, deterministic physical processes. (This strain of positivism is not to be confused with [more …]
Martin Buber was a Jewish theologian. He famously distinguishes between what he calls the Ich-Du (I-Thou or I-You) relationship and the Ich-Es (I-It) relationship, and ultimately uses this as a way of describing authentic and non-authentic encounters with God. From wikipedia: Ich-Du is a relationship that stresses the mutual, holistic existence of two beings. It [more …]
Heidegger and postmodernism [EP] Master Eckhart’s comments on seeing angels as devils when you die comes to mind when reading the conclusions Heidegger comes to. Even if his metaphysics and epistemology are correct, does the dread and anxiety necessarily follow? The following conclusions are taken up by postmodern nihilists, but are also very reminiscent of [more …]
Lonergan, Bernard …there are four questions, as it were, that GEM (generalized empirical method) proposes for anyone seeking to ground the methods of any discipline. (1) A cognitional theory asks, “What do I do when I know?” It encompasses what occurs in our judgments of fact and value. (2) An epistemology asks, “Why is doing [more …]
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/07/the-brain-on-trial/8520/2/ As with Tourette’s sufferers, split-brain patients, and those with choreic movements, Kenneth’s case illustrates that high-level behaviors can take place in the absence of free will. Like your heartbeat, breathing, blinking, and swallowing, even your mental machinery can run on autopilot. The crux of the question is whether all of your actions are fundamentally [more …]
http://www.ilovephilosophy.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=139221 Interesting topic. I used to think that Freedom trumps Justice, but now I think that Freedom is a part of Justice. It is upon the ground of Justice itself that Freedom rests. Freedom, therefore, must be measured against Justice to be authentic. There is no Absolute Freedom, separate from Justice. I am not free [more …]
An electron is a physical condensation of the electromagnetic field that permeates all of spacetime. Thus every electron has the same source. The electron is like the morning dew, appearing from and returning to “the thin air.” — Photons are not massless in a superconductor. They are heavy. Electromagnetic radiation does not penetrate superconductors. If [more …]
We live in a time when science – and even physics – books are regularly seen on the best-seller lists, while registration for science – and physics – classes are on the decline. What is it that the publishing industry knows that our educational system does not? One word: humanity. Again and again we see [more …]
Why, Mr. Anderson? Why do you do it? Why get up? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you’re fighting for something? For more than your survival? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know? Is it freedom? Or truth? Perhaps peace? Yes? No? Could it be for love? Illusions, Mr. Anderson. Vagaries [more …]
Maintain a constant mildness of temper and a tranquility of mind in all things Remain abstinent from mean and evil thoughts Refrain from fault-finding Practice a constant benevolence in nature Look carefully after the interests of friends Do not esteem yourself too highly; skill in expounding philosophical principles is the smallest of merits Do not [more …]
“The state of affairs in which ordinary people can discover the Supernatural only by abstruse reasoning is recent and, by historical standards, abnormal. All over the world, until quite modern times, the direct insight of the mystics and the reasonings of the philosophers percolated to the mass of the people by authority and tradition; they [more …]
3D printing has long fascinated me. Maybe I am just naive but this kind of stuff never ceases to amaze me. http://www.economist.com/node/18114327 –snip– It works like this. First you call up a blueprint on your computer screen and tinker with its shape and colour where necessary. Then you press print. A machine nearby whirrs into [more …]
From the book, Pathology of the Elites by Michael Knox Beran: For compassion, to be stricken with the suffering of someone else as though it were contagious, and pity, to be sorry without being touched in the flesh, are not only not the same, they may not even be related. Compassion, by its very nature [more …]
Laws do not change the hearts and minds of people. It took a moral conversion to stop slavery. It took Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and numerous other culture-changing influences to affect this conversion. The same thing must happen with abortion. Changing the laws will do little good if the hearts and minds remain fixed. Changing hearts and minds [more …]
The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient mechanical computer designed to calculate astronomical positions. It was recovered in 1900–1901 from the Antikythera wreck. Its significance and complexity were not understood until decades later. Its time of construction is now estimated between 150 and 100 BC. Technological artifacts of similar complexity and workmanship did not reappear until the 14th century, when mechanical astronomical clocks were built in Europe.
The mechanism is the oldest known complex scientific calculator. It contains many gears, and is sometimes called the first known analog computer, although its flawless manufacturing suggests that it may have had a number of undiscovered predecessors during the Hellenistic Period. It appears to be constructed upon theories of astronomy and mathematics developed by Greek astronomers and it is estimated that it was made around 150-100 BC.
Light and energy, gravity and inertia; these are material mysteries. We cannot explain them. A mystery is not the same as a puzzle. A puzzle can be figured out. A mystery, in the religious sense, cannot. A mystery cannot be figured out, because it defies figuring. We have literally taken lightening out of the sky and made it to sing, yet in a very real sense, we have no real knowledge of it all.
http://www.theamericanscholar.org/hive-of-nerves/ I think you will find comfort that there are people writing articles like this in publications like The American Scholar. I particularly like this article because it is the voice of a Christian speaking to a plurality of listeners – some of whom are people of faith, others not. The ability to speak – [more …]
“there is no explicit contradiction in the content of the statement, We are under an illusion when we claim to know what really is. On the other hand, there is an explicit contradiction in the reflective statement: I am stating what really and truly is so when I state that we are under an illusion whenever we claim to know what really and truly is so.”
This statement, if understood, should shock you out of your socks. It basically means that there are continuous curves that have no tangent! Can you imagine what such a curve looks like? Hint: are you good at fractions?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weierstrass_function
http://www.math.cmu.edu/%7Ebobpego/21132/nowhdiff.pdf