Fragments on Marxism and anarchism
Grad student notes from 2010.— One of the advantages of Marx’s equation of progress with the expansion of productive capacity is that it...
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Aug 16, 20204 min read
A short critique of Albert Camus
Journal entry from 2007.— Reading The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays (by Camus). Impressive book. Tries to answer the question I was...
Aug 11, 202059 min read
The relativity of values
Back in my twenties I had an intellectual and creative energy I don't have anymore. I was consumed by philosophy, jumping from topic to...
Jun 28, 20207 min read
Old student notes on random philosophy articles
Sometimes I like to return to philosophy in order to get the sort of intellectual stimulation that reading history doesn't provide. E.g.,...
Jun 14, 202019 min read
Critical remarks on Thomas Nagel
[From 2009.] I’m reading Thomas Nagel’s famous book The View From Nowhere (1986). Nagel seems more sensible than most contemporary...
Jun 9, 20208 min read
Old syllabus and lecture notes
[Here are some notes from the first syllabus I wrote for the U.S. History After 1865 survey course. Below them are overly ambitious notes...
Jul 24, 201919 min read
A little misanthropy can be a healthy thing
This is from a letter Sigmund Freud wrote to his pastor friend Oskar Pfister: I do not break my head very much about good and evil, but I...
Dec 27, 20183 min read
The meaning of life
[Excerpts from this book. See also this blog post, "Excerpts on happiness."] The meaning of life?— Life is not totally “meaningless.”...
Dec 22, 20181 min read
On realism and idealism
Over the years I've written a lot of reflections on the metaphysical issue of scientific realism vs. anti-realism or idealism. Idealism...
Dec 4, 20189 min read
On the meaning of 'knowledge'
[Philosophical notes from 2005.] Reading a collection called Contemporary Debates in Epistemology (eds. Steup and Sosa) for class. I'm...
Jul 13, 20184 min read
Critical thoughts on "The Alchemist"
[Notes from 2006.] Reading The Alchemist, the novel that has sold tens of millions of copies. “To realize one’s destiny is a person’s...
May 30, 20186 min read
The individual and history
Questions Raised by 9/11, and Their Answers [An old grad-school paper] Lawrence Wright’s book The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to...
May 28, 20186 min read
Against idealism
[The following thoughts are from this book.] It’s funny that people often deprecate Marxian materialism as an explanation of society and...
Mar 21, 20184 min read
Only Marxism can explain society
Marxism is right, and postmodernism is stupid. That's the thrust of a paper I've uploaded to academia.edu, which actually consists of...
Mar 21, 201812 min read
Notes on Marxism and empiricism
(Also see these notes.) Reading Maurice Cornforth’s Marxism and the Linguistic Philosophy (1965). A good book, not dogmatic or...
Mar 5, 20181 min read
Notes on cognitive science, and on pragmatism
Sometimes I like to read about contemporary philosophy and science, to escape the dreariness and intellectual semi-sterility of writings...
Jul 29, 20164 min read
Contemporary philosophy vs. sanity
[The following is a vignette I wrote years ago when studying for my Master's in philosophy. I was taking a class in contemporary...
Jul 20, 20163 min read
Richard Lewontin, Chomsky, and common sense
Richard Lewontin’s article “The Evolution of Cognition: Questions We Will Never Answer” is excellent. It counsels skepticism about...
Jul 5, 20165 min read
The silliness of logical positivism
[Old jottings from my journal.] Lenin’s Materialism and Empirio-Criticism, from the selections I’ve read so far, is sensible. (That isn’t...
Jun 21, 20164 min read
Notes on Theodor Adorno
[Old notes.] Reading Adorno: A Guide for the Perplexed, by Alex Thomson. I’m not very impressed with Adorno. Continental thinkers...
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