What Is It Like to Be a Philosopher?

In any case friends, I do welcome friendly feedback.
Given the book is supposed to contain ideas that challenge tradition, the status quo, and our biases, I expect it. At the very least I hope you've enjoyed it!

was ashamed of my response--I was fair even though this person was insulting and said I wasn't who I claimed to be, whatever that means--but because it was a bit of drama I didn't want to distract from my ongoing promotions at the time...

their CV which had some stuff that was politically relevant but a lot of stuff that was not, even during politically tumultuous times. If my paper implicitly supports authoritarianism, what have they been doing with their career? I ended up deleting that comment not because I...

people's lives in obvious ways and some stuff that can easily be related to many contemporary political events, but not all of it is about ethics and political philosophy. I pointed out to this person that in this way the content of the anthology was much like the content of...

(arguably).

Another philosopher said the paper on external world skepticism I wrote was implicitly supporting authoritarianism because it wasn't directly addressing contemporary political events. Now, there is a lot of mind-blowing stuff in the anthology that is relevant to...

lifetimes. Sheer curiosity about reality. That said, I also genuinely think some don't realize how dramatic shifts in perspective can be life changing. In profound ways. Just look at the influence religion can have on a person. We do that. We rely on reason rather than faith...

it. Same with functionalism. And that is why all of these views are included in the anthology. Many people think philosophy is intrinsically valuable and are interested in it for the same reasons they are interested in far away solar systems we will never reach in our...

disagree. I think a lot of people love and respect philosophers for going wherever the arguments take them. Do I agree with panpsychism? I don't know. But I do know eliminativism is another view that is often ridiculed even though it is difficult to identify what is wrong with...

But I do hope we all examine our difficult to defend assumptions about what does and doesn't count as philosophy worth doing.

One philosopher said the excellent paper on panpsychism was the reason philosophers weren't taken seriously.This was an understandable take, though I...

There were 2 surprising public reactions from well-known philosophers whose work I respect, to parts of my brand-new anthology Too Weird To Believe, Too Plausible To Deny: Mind-Blowing Philosophy Ideas. No, I will not tell you their names. I don't want to shame anybody...

I pointed out to this person that in this way the content of the anthology was much like the content of their CV which had some stuff that was politically relevant but a lot of stuff that was not, even during politically tumultuous times.

Now, there is a lot of mind-blowing stuff in the anthology that is relevant to people's lives in obvious ways and some stuff that can easily be related to many contemporary political events, but not all of it is about ethics and political philosophy.

Another philosopher said my paper on external-world skepticism was implicitly supporting authoritarianism because it wasn’t addressing contemporary political events.

Philosophy can do that too. The difference is that we try to rely on arguments rather than faith (arguably).

Many people value philosophy the same way they value astronomy: curiosity about reality itself—even parts of reality that may never directly affect our daily lives. That said, dramatic shifts in perspective can change people’s lives in profound ways. Just look at the influence religion can have.

These positions can sound strange, but they emerge from serious attempts to think clearly about the mind.

That’s why the anthology includes them.

Do I agree with panpsychism? I’m not sure. But eliminativism is also often ridiculed—even though it’s surprisingly hard to say exactly what’s wrong with it. The same goes for views like functionalism.

One philosopher said the excellent paper on panpsychism in the book was the reason philosophers aren’t taken seriously. That reaction is understandable, though I disagree. Many people respect philosophy precisely because philosophers follow arguments wherever they lead.

But I do hope we examine our assumptions about what does and doesn’t count as philosophy worth doing.

Started from the bottom, now we're here.

Almost stepped on this yesterday.

People talk about dogs with condescending envy. ”Oh Rex is so happy, he sure is lucky he doesn't know that one day he's going to die." Dogs are pretty smart. I like to believe they are acutely aware of their own mortality. They're just at peace with it.

Shout out for my friend Cliff Sosis’ new edited collection!

Too Weird To Believe, Too Plausible To Deny: Mind-Blowing Philosophical Ideas. “Basically, it's an anthology of original material, a collection of the 'craziest' yet defensible philosophical ideas...”

Amazon link: a.co/d/icVm7kG