Philosophy Now

"Here is the text and slide share of a lecture I gave at ECCO research group seminar at the free university of Brussels on Nov 4th 2009. Thoughts and comments are welcome." - Spaceweaver from Bookmarklet

"ryan Caplan and I recently discussed if brain emulations “feel.” In such discussions, many prefer to wait-and-see, saying folks with strong views are prematurely confident. Surely future researchers will have far more evidence, right? Actually, no; we already know pretty much everything relevant we are ever going to know about what really “feels”." - Alexander Kruel from Bookmarklet

"In a recently concluded poll, we asked, “If you had a personal robot that could do only one thing, which ability would you prefer it to have?” Is the question itself unethical? At some point within the next few decades, it seems likely that technology will allow the creation of humanoid robots so lifelike it may be hard to tell them apart from real flesh and blood humans. If the computer brains housed within contain a high level of artificial intelligence—perhaps so sophisticated that they could fool us into believing they are sentient—then will we still have the right to own those robots as property? To, in essence, treat them as slaves? Dozens of speculative novels have been written on this subject, of course, most famously by science fiction grand master Isaac Asimov, and more recently given an interesting twist by friend of the IEET David Brin in Kiln People." - Wildcat from Bookmarklet

"We like the feeling of certainty. It gives us confidence and a sense of safety. Mathematics, geometry and logic give us a taste of certainty. We get another taste from the well tested results of scientific investigation. However, the world as we experience it is full of probability, chance, uncertainty and mystery. We are surrounded by what is doubtful, and this makes us anxious. The goal of ancient skepticism is to produce a state of ‘ataraxia’ or ‘freedom of mind’ in the souls of its practitioners. It is not about eliminating doubt, but eliminating the cause of the mental distress people experience when doubts assail their minds. This cause contains a desire for the certainty of knowledge coupled with a belief that such knowledge is possible. A practical skeptic accepts the inherent uncertainty of most of our opinions and ceases to imagine that beneath the turbulent surface of experiences and events, reason, science or a mystical/religious vision can reveal an unchanging Reality or Absolute Truth..." - james reilly from Bookmarklet

"I love spending time outside. From wild places like the backcountry of the Sierra Nevada mountains, to the mundane nature in my back yard, I find comfort in my natural experiences. These places are restful. Peaceful. They restore my batteries, and help me to focus. And I am not alone in these experiences. People around the world seek out natural experiences. Even when confined to built spaces, we add pets, plants, pictures, and momentos from nature. It is part of who we are, and these experiences in nature help us reflect on what is important in life. The benefits of spending time in nature have been well-documented. Psychological research has shown that natural experiences help to reduce stress, improve mood, and promote an overall increase in physical and psychological well-being. There is even evidence that hospital patients with a view of nature recover faster than do hospital patients without such a view. This line of research provides clear evidence that people are drawn to nature with good reason. It has restorative properties." - Wildcat from Bookmarklet

Related article: "Memory Improved 20% by Nature Walk" http://www.spring.org.uk/2009... - Amira

"God may have created man in his image, but it seems we return the favour. Believers subconsciously endow God with their own beliefs on controversial issues. "Intuiting God's beliefs on important issues may not produce an independent guide, but may instead serve as an echo chamber to validate and justify one's own beliefs," writes a team led by Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ... "The experiments in which we manipulate people's own beliefs are the most compelling evidence we have to show that people's own beliefs influence what they think God believes more substantially than it influences what they think other people believe," says Epley. - james reilly from Bookmarklet

"Philosophy is often presented as a rather useless, if perhaps interesting, type of thought. Arguably, however, defective philosophies of mind are a leading cause of death today!" - Alexander Kruel from Bookmarklet

guest: Justin Clemens; transcript at http://www.abc.net.au/rn... \\ interesting bits about Foucault's break from his student Jacques Derrida. - Adriano

Outside the arts, a work of genius may be inaccessible to all but the professional audience; for example, Godel’s Theorem or Andrew Wiles’s proof of Fermat’s conjecture. The artist, mathematician, scientist or philosopher, working at the edge of comprehensibility has a very small audience indeed. The issue of unlocking a special kind of communication for a wide audience is not the case here. The other fields where inspiration is paramount are mysticism and religion. One does not say that St. Paul, for instance, was a genius, rather that he was divinely inspired by the grace of God. This is hardly different from the hackneyed idea that great poets are inspired by some muse or other: usually some teenage beauty who has spurned their love, as was Dante’s lucky fate. Great technical ability, like that possessed by Alexander Pope or Milton produced amazing works that few could emulate, and which deserve the attribution of genius if only for their assiduous labor. But some would prefer the... more... - Lethe Bashar

"Jean-Jacques Rousseau is a figure of continued importance for us, and for the problems – social, political, cultural, personal – that we face today, even though he died over a quarter of a millennium ago. He had an insight into the problems of living and of living well in competitive, hierarchical and status-conscious societies such as his own and the ones we still live in today. He also had some solutions, both individual and political, to the problems of modern life. Those solutions have struck many people, and not altogether wrongly, as dangerous and impractical. Still, they continue to inform, either directly or indirectly, a great deal of modern thinking on legitimacy, freedom, justice and social order.." - james reilly from Bookmarklet

"A recent review of research into rational decision making, led by Dr. Norbert Schwarz of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, has once again illustrated the extraordinary fallibility of human judgment..." - james reilly from Bookmarklet

"A similar situation occurs in another popular strategy used to counter false beliefs: using contradictory evidence. Given its use in public information campaigns, this is perhaps the most widespread mechanism for countering erroneous beliefs. It is perhaps also the most dangerous, given that it often doesn’t work. ... “This is the familiar pattern of illusion-of-truth effects: once... more... - james reilly

"Metzinger makes a provocative argument, he states that there is no such thing as a self, that there never has been, that there never will be." - Alexander Kruel from Bookmarklet

"Metaphysics asks questions about existence: for example, do numbers really exist? Metametaphysics asks questions about metaphysics: for example, do its questions have determinate answers? If so, are these answers deep and important, or are they merely a matter of how we use words? What is the proper methodology for their resolution? These questions have received a heightened degree of attention lately with new varieties of ontological deflationism and pluralism challenging the kind of realism that has become orthodoxy in contemporary analytic metaphysics. This volume concerns the status and ambitions of metaphysics as a discipline. It brings together many of the central figures in the debate with their most recent work on the semantics, epistemology, and methodology of metaphysics. Features * A collection of papers in one of the hottest areas of current analytic philosophy * Features a stellar cast that includes many of the world's leading philosophers. * All papers previously unpublished * Currently the only collection focussed specifically on this topic, which is a growing area of debate." - Wildcat from Bookmarklet

on my to read list - Wildcat

"David Bourget and I have recently launched a new PhilPapers project: the Philosophical Survey. This is a survey of the philosophical views of members of the philosophy profession and others. We encourage all professional philosophers, graduate students, and interested others to take part." - Alexander Kruel from Bookmarklet

"In this paper, I explore an area of emerging science, android science, and attempt to start a dialogue about possible future legal implications of fully conscious robots, referred to in this essay as humanoids. While the world currently has millions of robots doing industrial, commercial, and household tasks, I focus specifically on the legal challenges of human sexual interaction with future humanoids, albeit notional technology at this point in time. While this humanoid is a giant leap forward technologically, if a self-aware, super-intelligent, thinking, feeling humanoid is developed, the legal system will be hard pressed to distinguish this creature legally from human actors on grounds not stemming from a religious or moral prejudice. I consider whether human–humanoid sexual interactions should be regulated, the possible rights that might devolve to humanoids, and, finally, possible cost and benefit implications to humans in providing protections to humanoids. The objective is to... more... - Wildcat from Bookmarklet

What we think of as a writer's unique and individual gifts, those sparkling sentences that critics extol--in my present understanding--are really the effervescence of language itself. - Lethe Bashar

In this mode of appreciating art, the furthest I can see is not far enough. Fixated on the individual and her gifts, I lose sight of the deeper meaning or beauty in the work of art. By reducing art to the individual, and setting a spotlight on the hand that wrought perfection, I mistakenly short-circuit the whole enterprise of art. - Lethe Bashar

"My 13-year-old daughter was unusually insistent in her pleas to be allowed to attend the midnight release party for the last volume in some book series she was reading. Remembering to thank my lucky stars for her literary commitments, I grudgingly drove her to Borders at about 10pm, expecting to see ten or twelve bookish adolescents drinking hot chocolate while they waited for the clock to strike twelve. The crowded parking lot was my first indication that I was walking into a world everyone knew about, except me. My second was the store packed wall to wall with teenage girls in the full bloom of an almost frighteningly incandescent excitement, many of them dressed in low cut black gowns with their faces shining like floodlights through pale white paint. I stopped in the doorway of the store, turned to Dee Dee, whose normally beautiful human eyes were already radiating the luminescence of another sphere. I grabbed her arm and held her back, “Just what is this book about?” I asked..." - james reilly from Bookmarklet

"USC/STANFORD—Merely observing someone publicly blame an individual in an organization for a problem—even when the target is innocent—greatly increases the odds that the practice of blaming others will spread, new research shows. The reason: Blame triggers the perception that one’s self-image is under assault and must be protected. Nathanael Fast, an assistant professor of management and organization at the USC Marshall School of Business and Larissa Tiedens, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford University, conducted four experiments to investigate the viral nature of public blaming. The study is believed to be the first to examine whether shifting blame to others is socially contagious. The results will be published in the November issue of Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. “When we see others protecting their egos, we become defensive too,” says Fast, the study’s lead author. “We then try to protect our own self-image by blaming others for our mistakes, which... more... - Wildcat from Bookmarklet

Blame creates a culture of fear,” Fast says, “and this leads to a host of negative consequences for individuals and for groups.” - Wildcat