Category: Metaphilosophy
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Latin or Anglo-Saxon?
Well-written advice on writing well from Brand Blanshard.
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Against Philosophical Dismissal
To dismiss Hegel is as bad as to dismiss Donald Davidson. On second thought, it is far worse. For you cannot understand Marx without understanding Hegel, and you cannot understand the current culturally Marxist, 'woke' mess we are in without understanding Marx and his successors. Davidson & Co. can be safely ignored if it is…
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Tom and Van: A Tale of Two Idealists
Top of the Substack stack. …………………………….. Tony Flood comments (12/23): This was enjoyable on so many levels. There's irony in labeling these gents "idealists" (I know the sense in which you meant it) since Marxists considered theists like Merton metaphysical "idealists," but and how could any mathematician, even a Marxist one, be anything but an…
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Beyond Philosophy
Josef Pieper, Death and Immortality, trs. Richard and Clara Winston, Herder and Herder, 1969, pp. 129-130. Originally in German under the title Tod und Unsterblichkeit in 1968: Thus we have now at last touched, and perhaps overstepped, the boundary which is set for the philosophical enquirer. Really to reach this boundary — therein lies, I…
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The Affinity of Philosophy and Madness: David Stove on the Logos
From an interview with a philosopher of madness who is also a mad philosopher in the sense that he has experienced severe psychotic episodes requiring hospitalization, Wouter Kusters: JB: So, to paraphrase again, the ‘mad person’ is grappling with the very same profound questions as the philosopher, but is doing so in more chaotic, ‘uncontained’…
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Why Colin McGinn is the Best Philosopher Ever
It takes one to know one. (Via Dmitri Dain)
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Technical Philosophy, Compartmentalization, and Worldview
In memory of Saul Kripke (1940-2022) Substack latest.
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Could the Visible Surface of a Physical Thing be a Mental Item?
The Sparring Partner offers the following tetrad for our delectation. 1) I take this to be the visible surface of a desk. 2) It is almost certain that this in fact [is] the visible surface of a desk, but it is possible that it is not (it may be the result of a highly realistic…
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Obscure, Neglected, and Underrated Philosophers
A reader demands a list. Here we go. It is very far from complete. To list is not to endorse. A philosopher my be well worth studying but far from the truth of things. Contemporary academic philosophy is hyper-professionalized and over-specialized. An exposure to some of the following may have a broadening effect. Philosophy is…
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Philosophy Under Attack
An exercise in philosophical apologetics. Substack latest.
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Are Philosophical Problems Soluble?
Edward Buckner writes, In my PhD thesis I argued that philosophical problems cannot be resolved. I think you still take the same view. My thinking today is that while the problems exist in some sense, they cannot be coherently stated in logical form. I.e. “The riddle does not exist. If a question can be put at all,…
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So What’s up with the Metaphilosophy Book?
I was happy to find the following item in the mailbag the other morning: Hi Bill, I recall (however, I can't find exactly where) that you mentioned in an old blog post your intention to publish a work on metaphilosophy at some point in the future. I am curious, is this still a goal of yours?…
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Progress in Philosophy
I am making progress in philosophy, which is not to say that philosophy is making progress in me.
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The Philosopher and the Christian
Substack latest.
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Neither Piety nor Polemic
Neither piety nor polemic belong in philosophy proper. …………………………….. Commentary: 0) No proper aphorism is an aphorism if it explains itself or gives reasons for its own truth. And yet a good aphorism is the tip of an iceberg of thought susceptible of commentary. 1) So when I, as a philosopher, speak of God, I…