Existential
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Artificial Flaws
I wanted to write of AI, but I’m unable. I heard Michael Sandel on the radio last week, and, in his usual socratic (we never know what he himself thinks) style, he was asking people what they thought about algorithms deciding things like scoring student papers. I often think, the contestants we’ll call them, participants… Continue reading
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Is misery necessary?
“Marry well and you will be a happy man, marry poorly and you will become a philosopher” I can’t remember who said this, I do now think it may be true though. I read and wrote philosophy when I was married, I studied economics and politics too, and I felt very strongly about all three… Continue reading
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Nozick, refuting hedonism
I’m not going to explain what hedonism is, or its varying forks, save to say that it is the position of seeing pleasure/lack of pain as the best goal. In this essay I intend to examine Nozick’s attempt to refute hedonism as a rational position. I will set out with an assumption that hedonism is… Continue reading
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Locke on the ‘Person’
Locke’s work is important, for me it is useful though flawed but the project he undertook has been reformulated by other philosophers to be a more complete account. Locke saw PERSON as, importantly, a separable substance to MAN. I will attempt to understand his theory and why it is necessary, look at the accounts of… Continue reading
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Functionalism, a good account of pain?
I will be looking at the specific reaction of the mind to the condition of pain from the point of view that the mind is a functional device or machine that processes pain as possibly more than just the predictable end product of stimulus. I should start by stating that although it is pleasant to… Continue reading
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A life or not a life?
Let me first point out that I am not sure what a strong or weak argument constitutes for this issue aside from what I may find compelling from an emotional point of view. It may be a hard conversation to be involved in, not because of experience but because of a lack of it. Although… Continue reading
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Hume on design
Hume objects to the argument from design, this can be said to be an atheistic position but in the context of his dialogues not an anti deist one; for the argument here is upon the nature of god more than the possible existence or not of god. It is not the case that I intend… Continue reading
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Epicurus on death as nothing to us
What does Epicurus say of death? Epicurus says that death is nothing to us because while we live we are not experiencing, nor can experience, being dead. When are dead we cannot experience death because there is no us to experience death. His rejection of the bad nature of death is one where we cannot… Continue reading
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The on-going practice of identity
What is an identity? Is it the person we appear to be? If so, in which situation, for as all will be aware we can be different people at different times and in differing situations. You are not the same with your spouse as you are with your mum, with your pals, with your boss.… Continue reading
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The joy of therapy
I’m in therapy, I’ve got a problem and I’m getting help to solve it. I would recommend this to anyone who asked me, whether they need it or think they don’t. What it is is not what you think. I decided to approach it very open mindedly and without prejudice, I wanted to know more… Continue reading
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