Philosophy 101: Qualia
As part of my introductory series which has looked at different philosophers and the philosophical questions from the 2009 philpapers survey, I am going to look at qualia, as asked by a friend on facebook.
Jonathan MS Pearce
A lesson about the NHS from a 91-year-old
This video has been doing the rounds. And rightly so. Well worth a watch.
Christianity Is Not Great... is great!
Or a least, so it looks in my hands. I have a chapter in John Loftus' voluminous anthology which looks like a fantastic and comprehensive account of the harms that Christianity has
The moral value of an alien 'forqwiblexing' me
Last night, an alien came down to Earth and forqwibexed me. I mean, he really did. Who knew! This short post will be concerned with the idea that moral value systems such as Divine Command Theories or intrinsic value theories such as deonotological theories are problematic.
My brain
The other day I was getting really frustrated with my manual coordination. I was leaving school on a Sunday after doing some work and was trying to locate a particular key on a keyring. With one hand. Whilst holding three bags with my other and something under my arm. With something also being held
Determinism vs fatalism - 'Trick's infographic
'Trick Slattery, who has written a really good introductory book & ebook on determinism, has produced this infographic comparing determinism with fatalism. See what you think: As he says: I’ve been
Your political compass
For a bit of fun and interest, you can take your political GPS reading here. I cam out marginally less authoritarian than I thought I would:
DeGrasse Tyson - best sermon ever?
This is a great way to spend 10 minutes:
Malala's father on TED
This was a pretty interesting talk, with some lovely moments to lift as quotes. One of my favourites was the final closer: People ask me, what special is in my mentorship which has
Quote of the Day: PubliusCorneliusScipio - gun ownership and nuclear weapons
A superb point about guns and gun control which is not nearly used enough: It is almost a truism that "guns don't kill people, people kill people". But the fact remains that, given the intent to kill, guns make it far more likely that it will end badly.
Infinity, God, Vic Stenger and James A. Lindsay
The Malcontent's Gambit podcast has recently hosted an interview of author James A. Lindsay who authored God, God, God: Infinity Plus God Equals Folly (a book which I myself edited). The late Vic Stenger kindly wrote the foreword, and James talks much about infinity, God, and Voc Stenger too in this
Quote of the Day: Some bloke off HuffPo comments
.........YESTERDAY'S SCORECARD............Deaths by EBOLA on US Citizens........0 Deaths by ISIS to US Citizens..............0 Deaths by Guns to US Citizens............80 Moral: You are more likely to die by