Not actually strange from the perspective of deontological ethics.
All in philosophy audience
thoughts on the important distinction between ‘material’ and ‘social’ properties and relations in Marxist analysis
In Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence, G.A. Cohen quotes Marx from his Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1859) in one of the most useful epigraphs I’ve ever encountered. A full reproduction of the passage, and some small discussion.
I describe how we might understand our ‘identity’ in the normative sense, through Wilfred Sellars’ framework from Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind. I connect this to discussions of Kantian understandings of the sources of our obligations.
An understanding of patterns of behaviors within institutions, taking notes from natural selection and the works of G.A. Cohen and Anwar Shaikh.
Concepts, Methods, & Heuristics in Proofs and Refutations - Chapter 1, §4
An ongoing list of the concepts, methods, and heuristics used by the characters of Proofs and Refutations: The Logic of Mathematical Discovery, by Imre Lakatos. This is what I would have found useful the first time reading Proofs and Refutations, and I hope you find it useful too.
Chapter 1, §4 focuses on methods for responding to global counterexamples of a proof.
Concepts, Methods, & Heuristics in Proofs and Refutations - Chapter 1, §§1-3
An ongoing list of the concepts, methods, and heuristics used by the characters of Proofs and Refutations: The Logic of Mathematical Discovery, by Imre Lakatos. This is what I would have found useful the first time reading Proofs and Refutations, and I hope you find it useful too.
Chapter 1, §§1-3 focus on a proposed proof for the Descartes-Euler conjecture (the Cauchy proof) and types of counterexamples.
An Asymmetry in Is/Ought
Statements about what is the case do not seem to imply what ought to be—but statements about what ought to be must imply certain things about what is the case. This post describes that observation, plus describes why I think the observation is helpful.
Fruitful Explication in Philosophical Investigations
I find later-Wittgenstein more convincing than Carnap and the Vienna Circle where their views disagree about metaphysics and language. Yet as I am sympathetic to the idea that a thoughtful coordination of philosophy and science can be fruitful, I am glad to see some compatibility among later-Wittgenstein and Carnap’s views in “On Explication”.
David Hume on the Foundations of Promises
David Hume provides a wonderfully structured argument about the nature of promises and the obligations they create between us. He argues that promissory obligation is incoherent without a history of pragmatic social conventions. This essay summarizes his argument and gives additional comments in the context of Margaret Gilbert’s book Rights and Demands.
The Liar's Paradox: A Supertask?
Self-referential and negating, the classic Liar's Paradox creates a contradiction that challenges our basic intuitions of semantics and syntax.
I present an often overlooked interpretation of the same statement, and similar, revealing problems arise.
Notes & Reflections on “Why Do Socialists Talk So Much About Workers?” with Vivek Chibber
The first in a series responding to the four online 'ABCs of Socialism' lectures.
I summarize and respond to Vivek Chibber's argument that Leftists need to refocus on the working class as a righteous and practical issue.