Bailout or Bankruptcy

This editorial is getting a lot of play both on the right and left. (I heard about it on NPR this morning but I’ve noticed lots of blogs linking to it) “Bailout or Bankruptcy?” Sounds like a very nice revision of the Paulsen plan.

Intentionality and Potentiality

Maverick Philosopher on Intentionality and Potentiality.
“Reference to an object is thus an intrinsic feature of mental states and not a feature they have in virtue of a relation to an existing object. This is why Brentano speaks of the ‘intentional in-existence of an object.’ It is also why Husserl can ‘bracket’ the existence [...]

Reading Club: Ostler 1

OK, this is the first in the long delayed Ostler reading club. The book is Blake Ostler’s Exploring Mormon Thought: Of God and Gods. This is the third in Blake’s series on Mormon theology. It’s also quite different from the two that went before in that it is less about formal philosophy. [...]

New neurons are needed for new memories

New neurons are needed for new memories

Easy Knowledge and Millianism

Easy Knowledge and Millianism. You’ve heard of Millianism before although perhaps not called that. It’s the idea that the meaning of a proper noun is the object to which it refers. (Which is not the idea that the meaning is the relationship between name-token and object.)

Fallacy of Hedonism

A fallacy of psychological hedonism.

Heidegger, Plotinus and Ereignis

Heidegger, Plotinus and Ereignis. (HT: Enowning) I think this right although I think other aspects of Heidegger’s work reawoke in many Platonists a different way to read Plotinus and the like. Sara Rappe’s Reading Neoplatonism: Non-discursive Thinking in the Texts of Plotinus, Proclus, and Damascius seems to me to be influenced [...]

Peirce and Consciousness

OK, I’m still pretty swamped. In the meantime here’s an interesting quote from Peirce that popped up at Peirce-L.

Cantor’s Paradox

Cantor’s Paradox at Enigmania.

Strength of Belief

OK, I didn’t quite get the post on Blake’s book finished as I’d hoped to. In the meantime Splintered Mind had a thought provoking post on in-between believing. The situation is the well known case where someone answers that they aren’t racist yet in subtle ways acts in a racist manner.

Call for Papers: Mormon Thought and Engineering Vision

I’ve been remiss in not posting some of these. I’ll try to be better in the future. If you’re interested in these call for papers go to call for papers website which just lists all of these LDS academic paper calls.
The Howard W. Hunter Chair of Mormon Studies in the School of Religion [...]

Believing in Anything

Great post at the Frontal Cortex on magical thinking. “When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing - they believe in anything.” Fascinating study showing that the irreligious or liberal Christians tend to be more likely to believe in the paranormal and pseudoscience than Evangelical Christians.

Philosophers’ Carnival LXXVIII

Philosophers’ Carnival LXXVIII. I think I missed the last one. There are some really interesting posts this time including whether lying is always wrong given the placebo effect; whether open mindedness rather than tolerance is the best attitude in bioethics; and a discussion of Nagel’s controversial paper on ID in the classroom.

Writing of Derrida

The status of Derrida’s writing. Working like Derrida is acting as if you are writing the text you are reading. Reading is always also writing and rewriting. I’d add that all reading is deconstructive. Some are just more disruptive than others. An other good post at Countermemory.

The Number 24

All about 24. No, not Jack Bauer. The number 24 that plays “a central role in mathematics thanks to a series of ‘coincidences’ that is just beginning to be understood.” I don’t link to the n-Category Cafe too much since it’s probably not of interest to most. But it’s one of [...]

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