One of the great things about living in our time is . . . the silicone baking mat. This is a magnificent piece of technology, and if you have even a passing interest in using an oven, you should have at least one. But once you have one (or two or three), you’ll confront the […]
Continue ReadingMy blog
Anniversary
Those of you who follow my blog know that I took a week off from posting. I’m a philosopher, so it definitely was not because I didn’t have anything to say. 😉 Actually, I was celebrating a significant anniversary of excellencifying: This past Sunday was my 36th anniversary as principal organist at a local Lutheran […]
Continue ReadingManaging Reason Fatigue
There have been a number of articles in the news about the growing anger of vaccinated people at the unvaccinated, confrontations about masks and social distancing, and of course, plenty of expert advice that shaming, scorn, and insults do not generally move people to be “responsible.” Behind all this lies what I call “reason fatigue”: […]
Continue ReadingRumors of excellence
I’ve been thinking about excellence for a long time, and one aspect of this rumination has been listening to the way people think and talk about excellence. It seems we have two common perspectives on excellence, and each of them miss something essential about striving for excellence — what I call excellencifying. It’s hardly a […]
Continue ReadingPanpsychism, part 2: privileged access
In my previous post about panpsychism, I talked about postulates that allow us to engage in knowledge-making in certain domains. For instance, the assumption that the laws of nature that operate around our neighborhood operate everywhere: While this postulate is required for us to engage in science, it can’t be proved by science — for […]
Continue ReadingPerforming language
I’ve had a few questions about my Pronouns post, and I want to take a moment to clear up a possible confusion about “performing.” In English, the word perform has various connotations, of which we can differentiate two main themes. When actors perform a part, they are, to be crude, pretending to be someone they […]
Continue ReadingWhat Panpsychism tells us about Method
I recently read an interesting article about panpsychism: https://www.salon.com/2021/07/23/panpsychism-the-idea-that-inanimate-objects-have-consciousness-gains-steam-in-science-communities/ Briefly, panpsychism is the claim that “consciousness is inextricably linked to all matter.” If you’re trying to get your head around this idea, read Pullman’s His Dark Materials (one of my favorite works of fiction, incidentally). Pullman has created a world in which consciousness is thoroughly […]
Continue ReadingPronouns
You’ve probably seen a “preferred pronouns” notice in people’s email signatures and elsewhere. This practice is a frequent topic of conversation, and I’m often asked questions like, Is it a fad? or What’s wrong with pronouns the way they are? What’s the big deal? Aristotle rightly pointed out that, of all the ways we interact […]
Continue ReadingKant Got This Right
As I often say, the mistakes of a great philosopher are worth the philosopher’s weight in gold. Kant said plenty of things to object to, but one thing Kant got right is that we can’t get free will and the laws of nature to play nicely together (at least not the current laws of nature […]
Continue ReadingSwitch
A few weeks ago, I decided to install a new light fixture and a dimmer in my bathroom, so I did what any philosopher would do: I researched light fixtures and switches to find exactly the right ones. The fixture was relatively easy, because — aside from accommodating dimmable bulbs — the issues were mostly […]
Continue Reading