http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/801
I must wonder if Sam Harris understands the presumptions that are foundational to his claims about using science for determining ethics.
Archive for the ‘philosophy’ Category
Ted – Science and the Meaning of Life
March 23, 2010I am a survivor of Revision Brain Syndrome
February 27, 2010http://www.youtube.com/user/YARebels#p/a/u/1/TElNpm_7Cjg
A special thanks to my loving family who were supportive last year during my thesis work. The rest of you giving me a hard time? well, you know where you belong.
Rules of philosophy
February 27, 2010First rule of philosophy: discussions never lead to fist fights.
Second rule of philosophy: ensure your beliefs are internally consistent.
That’s it.
Everything else follows. We respect our fellow dialectician as we would ourselves, and have a consistent argument lest it be called out and invalidated.
Even this post is succinct.
Exams
February 12, 2010Today was the first exam in Bioethics. I didn’t really think much of it, I got up, went to class a little earlier than usual by virtue of not dealing with 2 hours of work beforehand, and was asked repeatedly what kind of questions we were going to be asked.
Look kids, it’s a 400 level class. The reading was pretty self explanatory, the discussions were interesting and shouldn’t have left people puzzled. Why then were they asking what the exam questions were going to be like?
The good doctor didn’t chose to give us a practice exam or any sort of primer because he knew the questions would be easily answered by anyone who 1) read the assignments and 2) participated in class discussion, at the very least refrained from falling asleep. This wasn’t a very big secret, he pretty much said so. That it was open book meant he could ask questions that at the most required reexamining a section pertaining to the question.
Am I too harsh on my classmates?
First real day
January 16, 2010The first (real) lecture of class this semester reminded me of the joys of going to class, with a few exceptions. Knowing what’s going on is tempered by
It’s hard not coming across as a self-assured know it all. Especially in classes you really enjoy and have a background in. Bioethics is something I naturally have rational beliefs in, I can reasonably justify the beliefs I claim to hold (admitting there are indeed beliefs I hold irrationally). While this doesn’t make me better than my colleuges, my arguments are mean, lean and can handle most challanges heading my way. The real challange of the class, besides being maximally awesome, is not stepping on peoples toes.
Poor planning
January 8, 2010So the problem I had in school was improperly planning my courses.
Had i done the correct thing I might have figured out that there was only one remaining class was actually one I’ve sat in on, and would do extremely well in.
In order to graduate, and have a cute little piece of paper showing this accomplishment I must attend Bioethics.
Since it’s going to be with the esteemed Dr. Drabkin I’ll be writing mini posts every week until finals.
Midnight Realizations
March 9, 2009It occurred to me as I finished the biography of Albert Einstein by Walter Isaacson that Einstein’s concerns of Quantum Physics is something I’ve occasionally wrestled with in Philosophy. The idea that the outside world does not exist as we observe it is not very disturbing, even for the most ardent believer in an underlying reality beyond our observations, yet if we were to go a step further and say everything follows from our perception; that causality doesn’t exist that event horizon; then we get into the realm of Quantum Physics that Einstein spent half of his illustrious life struggling with.
Maybe the Philosophers could help him out too?
Enjoy that as you try and fall asleep. 
How Intelligent Design fails
February 16, 2009Recently in the Philosophy of Science course we discussed, as a means of understanding the necessary material for the entirepurpose of the class, the underlying mechanics and, ahem, science of Intelligent Design. Since the purpose of this lecture was not to proselytize instead give us an understanding to a theory that very much is not understood fully by the classroom, the good Doctor (erm, hello Dr Miller…) quite sufficiently explained the underlying principles of Intelligent Design. I will not be able to give them nearly the same amount of time and detail as he did, but I must underline a few properties and examples that are especially troublesome to myself. (more…)
When Professors strike
February 3, 2009Turns out some of my professors read this blog, to which I say greetings! I’ll have to keep my anti-professor thoughts to myself.
Preview: Mountain-Plains conference
October 24, 2008Today is the second day to the Mountain-Plains philosophy conference, held this year at my University, Fort Hays State, in Kansas.
The keynote was superb. For a concept as difficult as Metaphysics the speaker Ted Sider from New York University explained it in such a way that his objections did not leave me feeling like an idiot.
Also: I found out a strange thing today, the laces in my left shoe were put in backwards. The pain was excruciating but I never thought the laces themselves were responsible. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the one who put them in that way.
Strangeness abounds. Anyways, off to write finish a paper for Lit.
