horselesstelegraph.wordpress.com
“Hello”, “Ouch”, and “Snow is white” | The Horseless Telegraph
https://horselesstelegraph.wordpress.com/2012/10/12/hello-ouch-and-snow-is-white
Lewis Powell's Philosophy Blog. 8220;Hello”, “Ouch”, and “Snow is white”. I like the following three sentences as illustrating the sorts of different things we ideally want a complete philosophy of language to capture:. 1) “Snow is white”. 3) “Hello”. 8221; This is where sentences like, “Go to the store” and “Is Thomas at home? 8221; come in. If we extend our picture in the way necessary to account for “hello”, we don’t need to assign individual mental states to questions and comman...For what it is wort...
horselesstelegraph.wordpress.com
Having Views is Overrated | The Horseless Telegraph
https://horselesstelegraph.wordpress.com/2013/03/21/having-views-is-overrated
Lewis Powell's Philosophy Blog. Having Views is Overrated. In this post, I am going to advocate for the position that having (first-order) philosophical views is overrated. I am going to take for granted that philosophical inquiry involves the pursuit of knowledge and understanding. It is to be culled. What is it that we need from a theory of X, that the culled theory can’t give us? What features of the culled theory are preventing it from meeting that need? Perhaps a briefer way to make my point is this...
horselesstelegraph.wordpress.com
Young Philosophers Talk Series | The Horseless Telegraph
https://horselesstelegraph.wordpress.com/2013/12/09/young-philosophers-talk-series
Lewis Powell's Philosophy Blog. Young Philosophers Talk Series. I recently gave two talks for the Young Philosophers Series at SUNY Fredonia (or, more accurately, the “Philosophers who have been credentialed in the last six years or are about to be credentialed” Series). One talk is intended to be an introductory talk presupposing no background, the other is a research oriented talk. Here are the talks I gave:. Research Talk: “Adam Smith on Sympathy for the Deceased”. Feed You can leave a response. Centr...
tylerhower.com
De Nihilo Nihil: What lessons poverty?
http://www.tylerhower.com/2015/01/what-lessons-poverty.html
Monday, January 12, 2015. I'm in my second of three weeks traveling with and teaching a group of undergraduates from the University. We've taken a number of trips and done some service work. Unsurprisingly, we've seen a lot of poverty here. And, though what we have seen does not approach the poorest of the poor, we have seen and talked to and spent time with people whose lives are vastly different to our own. First, something good: Our material possessions don't guarantee happiness. It is possible to...
tylerhower.com
De Nihilo Nihil: 01/01/2014 - 02/01/2014
http://www.tylerhower.com/2014_01_01_archive.html
Sunday, January 19, 2014. Do I represent the human condition? Last year I had the pleasure to teach a class on 20th Century Continental Philosophy. I’m not sure that I have an area of expertise, but Continental philosophy certainly isn’t it. The class involved me having to learn and read a lot of new things. And, I cheated a little by starting with reading Nietzsche—I mean, he almost made it into the 20th Century, right? Among the things we read was Sartre’s novel Nausea. You see this when a student̵...
tylerhower.com
De Nihilo Nihil: 01/01/2015 - 02/01/2015
http://www.tylerhower.com/2015_01_01_archive.html
Saturday, January 31, 2015. There's nothing more American than not vaccinating your children. We treat the anti-vaccine crowd as if they were an aberration. But they aren't outliers. They are the natural endpoint of two very strong and very American tendencies: distrust of all authorities and hierarchies; and, the belief that we are each responsible for ourselves. GMOs—leave aside other concerns people might have. It doesn't matter. I just know. I am an American. Links to this post. In addition to the gu...
tylerhower.com
De Nihilo Nihil: 04/01/2015 - 05/01/2015
http://www.tylerhower.com/2015_04_01_archive.html
Wednesday, April 01, 2015. I love you, but I'm worried about your immortal soul. I'm not going to wade into a lengthy debate about whether laws purporting to "restore" religious liberties are really licenses to discriminate. I suspect that, in the current context, they are. No one seemed upset about catering or providing flowers for repeat trips to the altar in the past, but what do I know? How different is that, at the end of the day, from those who merely want to save me from my own perfidious ways?
