First of all, I hope you're enjoying the holidays. I've been baking up a storm... Unfortunately I can only offer you a virtual sampling of treats. But if you look on the bright side, fewer calories. And now brace yourself for an awkward transition... I've been trying to wrap my mind around the split between the … Continue reading The Natural Attitude
A while back I did some Googling to find out whether someone out there had written a book similar to mine, and in my research I came across Charles Johnson's novel, Faith and The Good Thing. Too good to be true. He too makes use of the most powerful centerpieces in Plato's works: The Allegory of the … Continue reading The Challenges in Writing a Philosophical Novel
I'm working on a project with Andreas (you may know him as "Nannus") to translate Frege's "On the Scientific Justification of a Concept Script," which is funny since I don't know much about Frege—close to nothing—and I don't speak German. Nannus, however, is a native German speaker with a strong grasp of English and logic, … Continue reading Translating in the Dark
A few years back I went to a lecture intended for professors and graduate students in philosophy. It was open to the public, even minimally publicized, but the second I entered the classroom I realized no other 'outsiders' had attended. The lecture turned out to be very technical, chock full of scholarly jargon. But after … Continue reading The Will to Believe
To understand this post, you might have to read part I and part II on phenomenology and artificial intelligence. The question I'm asking is not: Can computers think? Or: Can AI have consciousness? But: Can meaning "run ahead" for AI the way it does for us? Can we program intentionality, the "about-ness" or "directed-ness" toward … Continue reading Eidos and AI: What is a Thingamajig?
