Category: Philosophy

  • Domains of Conception

    Domains of Conception

    The Borders of Understanding My molecular biologist friend, Barry Bowman, brewed up this stimulating thought: One can understand much about nature without mathematics. Can one understand quantum mechanics only through its arcane mathematics?  Can one not comprehend quantum physics other than through its mathematical expression? To explore the thought some agreement is needed on the…

  • Meaning from Data

    Meaning from Data

    Intelligence: Artificial vs. Real Here is the problem David Cope solved many years ago Given the enormous musical library of compositions left to us by the venerable Johann Sebastian Bach, can new compositions be manufactured as if his signature were upon them? As if they were long lost Bach musical manuscripts only recently discovered? Cope…

  • Judgement’s Penalty

    Judgement’s Penalty

    Value judgements impede understanding In medieval times and in primitive societies an explanation for events was a matter of morality; of good and evil, right or wrong. A death, say by tuberculosis, was explained as the action of evil forces. Witches maybe. Or perhaps the death was explained as good; justice – retribution for a…

  • Robots’ Feelings

    Emotion algorithms To answer the question whether robots have feelings or not we must have some notion about the nature of feelings. What are feelings? Or emotions? Are they to be accounted for purely physically; the expression of electrochemical processes that take place within one’s body? Our psyche’s perception of the physiological activity taking place…

  • Axioms

    Hypotheses I cannot prove; taken on faith I’m thinking about my axioms of faith. On what unprovable hypotheses do I confront the world. My axioms are my prejudices; the fewer the better. The first one is this: 1. That reality exists. That a world exists in whose catalogue of entities I am one. And what…

  • Right Wrongs

    Drowning in the ocean of injustice. Context: An atomic bomb was dropped by the U.S. on Hiroshima, Japan in August of 1945. This event was the critical one which ended the Second World War. Some claim that it was an act of savagery needlessly killing many because the war could have been ended without that…

  • Perspectives

    Sadye Stories My mother’s name was Sadie. By some coup of whim I had thought she spelled it ‘Sadye’ when I suggested that name for our new born daughter to her mother. My precious wife, Elfi, acceded so our daughter became Sadye. Quarantine. Sadye was a 5 year old in kindergarten in 1997. The children…

  • The Tick

    The Tick August 1997 Perhaps it was a tick lodged in her skin; that tiny black spot on the left side of her neck. Perhaps it was only the crust on a healing skin wound. It’s hard to spot that devilish insect unless you inspect carefully. You get ticks playing in the woods and that’s…

  • Privilege Wants

    Peace is what the privileged want. The indignant want war. I consider myself privileged. Not because I am wealthy. I am not. Not because I have power to control others. I have no such power. I am privileged because I am not in pain, I am not disabled physically and I am not in financial…

  • Emotion and Reason

    “Les passions ont appris aux hommes la raison” Emotion has taught mankind to reason Marquis de Vauvenargues 1715-1747 What is it that captures us about these words? Emotion has taught mankind to reason. It is this. They appear to contradict common opinion which holds that emotion is the antithesis of reason; behavior is either emotional…

  • Need

    Charming downtown Santa Cruz consists of just one street five blocks in length. Shops, restaurants and outdoor cafés border this attractive tree lined avenue. Street musicians abound as do beggars and near-beggars, those offering something in exchange for a contribution to their open coffer. One of them stood in a building alcove bordering the sidewalk.…

  • Sunshine

    The Worrisome Business Of Logical Consistency Sunshine Every Day The year was perhaps 1938. I was 7 years old then, living in a New York City apartment with my mother, my father and my baby sister. The location was a plebian building with the august address of 35 Hamilton Place in Washington Heights. The upper…

  • Adagia

    Adagia Set In Stone The path to the house demanded stepping stones. It could be a muddy walk without them. To make a stepping stone is merely a matter of pouring cement into a wood frame set on the ground. You remove the frame when the cement hardens. But a slab of wet cement calls…

  • Free-Will-Free

    “We must believe in free-will. We have no choice.” ― Isaac Bashevis Singer The words, “free will,” as commonly understood, are without meaning. (Explanation here.) They are words that describe an illusion about reality. Like the word, sunset, describes the illusion that the sun is moving whereas, in fact, the sun is not moving. Rather…

  • Autism

    Window on Normalcy Mockingly calling ourselves the Concept Exchange Society we meet once a month to hear from someone who has spent time researching and thinking about a subject. We gather in a volunteer host’s home to hear the fruits of considered thought. This month’s speaker has given thought to autism, an isolating mental affliction…

  • A Case for Free Will

    A Case for Free Will I have a friend whom I respect and admire as a rational man of intelligence and insight. He disdains belief in the supernatural. He rejects the idea of a God who intervenes in natural process. He subscribes to the notion that whatever happens is the result of natural cause. That…

  • Compassion

    The Compassionate Emasculation of Robert von Grönegger It was billed as a celebration of his life; the passing away of Robert von Grönegger. A communal mourning. On an August afternoon of the year 2000. Perhaps fifty people were gathered in that wood paneled, beam ceilinged house sitting on a high rise overlooking the Bay. The…

  • Nature’s Imperatives

    This drivable motion graphic embodies an idea. It illustrates the content of the earlier post called Free Will. The idea is that we live in a deterministic world. And free will, properly understood, is not in contradiction to this notion. Free will is behavior not evidently coerced. But all behavior is coerced. By coerced is…

  • Off the Road

    Getting Off The Road March 19, 2006 Saturday morning I live in the woods. In a redwood forest. I am driving along the road into the town of Sebastopol this morning. Enjoying the ride. It’s springtime.  Flowering trees and green foliage everywhere. It’s a country road, one lane each way. And quite often in my…

  • Free Will

    Sequel to previous post: God Determines Almost 400 years ago, the venerable philosopher, Baruch de Spinoza (1634-1677), in his ‘Improvement of Understanding,’ wrote of free will: these are words to which no idea is attached. That the phrase, free will, has no meaning has been demonstrated by philosophers for several hundred years: Locke, Hume, Hegel,…

  • God Determines

    The ancient Greek philosopher, Epicurus (around 300 BCE), introduced the world to a conundrum called the Problem of Evil. It says: Since evil exists, God doesn’t. Here is the entire proof: Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able to prevent evil but not willing? Then…

  • Want

    I Don’t Want What I Want Because he is Little Prince he may have anything he wants. He loved birds. So a garden sanctuary for birds was built for him. It was a concert hall of netting to allow the many birds free flight through the lush foliage. He had singing birds and colored birds…

  • Texture

    “What do you seek in life?,” was the question. “Texture,” said Clarissa, without hesitation, in her deep throated silken British voice as she sunned herself, settled on the lawn chair by the pool. She had studied philosophy at Cambridge. Her title of nobility was authentic. Lady Clarissa. She was 32 years old. Beautiful and intelligent…

  • Focus Worry

    Alarm is in the air. The financial crises. Job problems. Global warming. Overeating. Nuclear energy generation. Starvation and war in some places. Perhaps we can direct our dread; focus it’s power. Let’s concentrate our anxiety on the single most important issue. If we all worry together its gathered force can avert the threatening disaster. I…

  • Exponential Growth

    Living cells multiply. Their number grows exponentially. The more there are the faster they increase. An exponentially growing population has a doubling time: the time it takes for the population to double. Having a doubling time is a characteristic of exponential growth. In the time it takes each individual cell to divide into two cells,…

  • The Equation

    An equation is a statement that says ‘this equals that’. It’s hard to imagine, from that raw and basic idea, that something called an equation could be of any use. Whether ‘this equals that’ or not seems a matter of little consequence! But, in fact, we know that to state what things are equal can…

  • Innate Goodness

    The paragraph below is quoted from an interview with Jack Kornfield, popular advocate and teacher on living a spiritual life. “Freud says, ‘Culture has to … erect barriers against the aggressive instincts of men … To love one’s neighbor as oneself is … completely at variance with original human nature ….’ From a Buddhist perspective,…

  • Fauna of Convictions

    Fundamentally there is no point to being alive. People live. They don’t dwell on its pointlessness. Most fabricate a meaning for existence. They manufacture a point:  to serve God, to make music, to nurture the family, to create art, to win races, to wreak vengeance … To do something or other. The doing is sanctified…

  • Restraint is valiant.

    “Many would be cowards if they had courage enough.” Thomas Fuller Before this stepping stone suffered its blow it read: RESTRAINT IS VALIANT It takes valor to hold your tongue. The common view is that to do battle is valiant. But, in truth, to refrain from battle is valianter! The reward is the husbanding of…

  • Sustainable Growth?

    Can growth be sustainable? Free giveaways generate buying. Chris Anderson, in a recent article in Wired Magazine, rejoices in the idea. He perceives a new business paradigm in this form of selling. The article is called, “Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business”. It’s a confused and disjointed article burdened with irrelevancies and embarassing…

  • Why Is There Anything?

    I am thinking about the functions of religion. What does organized religion give to people that drives them to suspend reason. What is the nature of man that religion exists? I conclude that people need guided ceremony. And they need prayer: something to offer consolation in times of despair and celebration in times of joy.…

  • From Mud, the Lotus

    Out of the Mud Comes the Lotus “May all that have life be delivered from suffering” Gautama Buddha “Is it possible to conquer all suffering? Is that conquest even a rational idea?” Marvin Chester The foundational structure of Buddhism is enunciated in THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS: The world is full of suffering (dukkha). Suffering is…

  • The Problem of Evil

    Is there a “Problem of Evil” when there is no God? i.e. Is there evil in the world? Can any act be said to be evil, the concept being completely subjective? Do people who do evil agree that they are doing evil? Why then do they do it? What does evil mean? David Hume, the…

  • Ant’s World View

    The interesting thing about suicide bombers is this: that they are so dedicated to their community – islam, anarchism in a former time – that they kill themselves for it. Let us distinguish the practice – facing death – from the mechanism which drives that practice. The drive is spiritual. A world view is required…

  • Is Life Worth Living?

    Is Life Worth Living? asks William James In Is Life Worth Living? by William James (1896), James says: “Pessimism is essentially a religious disease.” He clarifies thusly: This “is why I call pessimism an essentially religious disease. The nightmare view of life [arises from] the contradiction between the phenomena of Nature and the craving of…