Introduction. When I read the following passage in a review of a book on the philosophy of music, my understanding of Carnot’s second law of thermodynamics and its philosophical implications kicked in and inspired me to compose an article combining a wide variety of ideas and experiences. This is overdue as I had promised … Continue reading “Gradiance: The Mother of all Reductions”
Category: Philosophy
Philosophy, Religion, Mysticism and Madness
I am still in the middle of reading Wouter Kusters’ phenomenal Philosophy of Madness: The Experience of Psychotic Thinking. This book is a must read for all interested in philosophy, mysticism and madness, and those who are open to the disturbing closeness, even overlap, of all three, like Kusters’ ideas that: Philosophy is controlled madness; Madness develops … Continue reading “Philosophy, Religion, Mysticism and Madness”
Modernity Between the Rise and Fall of the Cartesian Cogito
Introduction. In this blog I will compress into a short story my proposed periodization of Modernity, bookended by the Renaissance and Post-modernity. My idiosyncratic idea is to place the start of modernity in 1620 and its end in 1926. The Start of Modernity in 1620 The choice of 1620 has two reasons. First, it … Continue reading “Modernity Between the Rise and Fall of the Cartesian Cogito”
The Cultural History of Inner Mind Space
Introduction. Following are two sections from the dissertation: “The Possibility Conditions of Narrative Identity“. Though I intended to include much more Jaynesian theory, I think these two sections will be most accessible for Jaynesians. The rest is also pretty compatible with Jaynes. What my dissertation did was to highlight the narrative component of consciousness and … Continue reading “The Cultural History of Inner Mind Space”
The Tacit Dimension Operative in Phenomenology
Abstract. This paper tries to assess the tacit dimension operative in the doing of phenomenology itself. The pre-phenomenological, pre-thematic naive skills of everyday abstraction and reflection comprise the tacit basis upon which phenomenology draws to do its work. In the natural attitude we are always already using these skills in daily life, and in the … Continue reading “The Tacit Dimension Operative in Phenomenology”
The Possibility Conditions of Narrative Identity
Each of us constructs and lives a ‘narrative’ . . . this narrative is us, our identities — Oliver Sacks. This dissertation is the fruit of my research on the concept of narrative identity, i.e. the claim that our sense of self is structured like a story. While investigating this concept it became clear that … Continue reading “The Possibility Conditions of Narrative Identity”
Nietzsche’s Reluctant Acceptance of Liberal Democracy (and later Rejection)
Introduction. The questions to be addressed in this essay are 1) whether we can extract from Nietzsche’s book Human, All Too Human, which was written in his more moderate science-oriented middle period, something of a political view; 2) whether this view can be construed, with some hedging here and there, as supporting modern liberal democracy; … Continue reading “Nietzsche’s Reluctant Acceptance of Liberal Democracy (and later Rejection)”
Foucault’s Concept Discipline: A Systematic Analysis
Introduction. In this essay I will primarily focus on the pivotal Foucauldian concept of discipline as developed in his influential 1975 study Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (hereafter DP). The plan of the paper is to first connect the concept with its immediate neighboring terms, especially punishment and surveillance. Then I will … Continue reading “Foucault’s Concept Discipline: A Systematic Analysis”
The Mechanics of Epistemic Contextualism
§1.0. General introduction. A few years ago I happened to participate in a class on DeRose’s recent monograph The Case for Contextualism: Knowledge, Skepticism, and Context (vol. 1). We picked the text apart and read also papers by Moore, Unger, Lewis, Kaplan, Perry, Schiffer and a few more. In his monograph DeRose was mainly concerned … Continue reading “The Mechanics of Epistemic Contextualism”
The Dialectical Gyrations in and between Hegel and Marx
Introduction. This paper initially intended to address discussions regarding the importance and scope of an alleged break between the early, philosophical articles of the revolutionary theoretician Karl Marx (1818-1883) and his later, mature historical-materialist socioeconomic investigations. But, because Marx in his early years dealt predominantly with the grand and influential philosophy of the German idealist … Continue reading “The Dialectical Gyrations in and between Hegel and Marx”