philosophicalorthodoxy.blogspot.com

alexanderpruss.blogspot.com

Alexander Pruss's Blog: The randomness argument against compatibilism

http://alexanderpruss.blogspot.com/2011/07/randomness-argument-against.html

Sunday, July 17, 2011. The randomness argument against compatibilism. The randomness argument insists that if our actions are not determined by our character, then they are a matter of chance and hence not free. This is the most powerful argument against libertarianism. I want to think about whether the argument presents a challenge to the. As strong as her desire to inherit the money from her uncle. But when desires are sufficiently close in strength, then which desire is the stronger is "a matter o...

stanford-gibson.blogspot.com

A Fiercer Delight and a Fiercer Discontent: October 2014

http://stanford-gibson.blogspot.com/2014_10_01_archive.html

A Fiercer Delight and a Fiercer Discontent. Eclectic reflections on music, philosophy, theology and culture. Friday, October 24, 2014. The Verdict on Human Nature: A Lament. The jury is in. Centuries of debate about human nature have come to an end. Are we, at our core, kind and altruistic, or self serving and basically shit? That used to be a debate. A legitimate question for discourse. A rhetorical arc from Locke vs. Hobbes to Annie vs Jeff [1]. But we have adjudicated it. And then there’s Twitter.

stanford-gibson.blogspot.com

A Fiercer Delight and a Fiercer Discontent: December 2014

http://stanford-gibson.blogspot.com/2014_12_01_archive.html

A Fiercer Delight and a Fiercer Discontent. Eclectic reflections on music, philosophy, theology and culture. Wednesday, December 24, 2014. A Summary of a Summary: James Smith on Charles Taylor.in charts and memes. Summarized Charles Taylor’s [2]. Distilling a 900 page tome into a thin, accessible 140 page volume.and also readable (Smith is a phenomenal writer with playful sensibilities who shares my love of 'cross-pressured' fiction). He called it H. Ow (Not) to be secular: Reading Charles Taylor. And th...

stanford-gibson.blogspot.com

A Fiercer Delight and a Fiercer Discontent: A Two Front Strategy: Aspiration and Contentment in Love and Vocation

http://stanford-gibson.blogspot.com/2015/02/a-two-front-strategyaspiration-and.html

A Fiercer Delight and a Fiercer Discontent. Eclectic reflections on music, philosophy, theology and culture. Sunday, February 15, 2015. A Two Front Strategy: Aspiration and Contentment in Love and Vocation. I recently gave two talks on work. The first argued that our culture underrates vocation, the second argued that canonical clichés put too much hope in our careers and dreams. So what’s true? Is work too important or not important enough? Well, yes. [1]. Creates disappointment and bitterness. The magn...

alexanderpruss.blogspot.com

Alexander Pruss's Blog: It is more than 2.588 times as important to avoid certainty about a falsehood than to have certainty about a truth

http://alexanderpruss.blogspot.com/2011/10/it-is-more-than-2588-times-as-important.html

Monday, October 10, 2011. It is more than 2.588 times as important to avoid certainty about a falsehood than to have certainty about a truth. William James suggests there is no right answer: different people will simply have different preferences. Here are the assumptions. Let V. Be the value of having credence r. Proposition, for 1/2≤ r. 8804;1. Let D. Be the disvalue of having credence r. Proposition, again for 1/2≤ r. 8804;1. Then the assumptions are:. 8805;1/2 to a proposition p. 8722;(1− r. For if i...

alexanderpruss.blogspot.com

Alexander Pruss's Blog: Limitations, art and evil

http://alexanderpruss.blogspot.com/2015/05/limitations-art-and-evil.html

Wednesday, May 13, 2015. Limitations, art and evil. It's a standard thought that art thrives on limitations. These may be imposed by the technical capacities of the medium (I was reading this. Today) or by repressive authorities (think here of communist-era Eastern European literature), or they may be limitations imposed by the artist or her artistic community. In this regard art is like sport, where there are rules that constrain one. For we can answer some "Why did God not do it this way instead? I am ...

alexanderpruss.blogspot.com

Alexander Pruss's Blog: Preference structures had by no possible agent

http://alexanderpruss.blogspot.com/2015/05/preference-structures-had-by-no.html

Thursday, May 14, 2015. Preference structures had by no possible agent. Say that a preference structure is a total, transitive and reflexive relation (i.e., a total preorder) on centered worlds- i.e., world-agent pairs w. Then there is a preference structure had by no possible agent. This is in fact just an easy adaptation of the proof of Cantor's Theorem. Be my own centered world @. Pruss . We now define a preference structure Q. As follows. If agent x. Then we say that c. Otherwise, we say that w.

alexanderpruss.blogspot.com

Alexander Pruss's Blog: Everettian quantum mechanics and functionalism about mind

http://alexanderpruss.blogspot.com/2015/05/everettian-quantum-mechanics-and.html

Friday, May 1, 2015. Everettian quantum mechanics and functionalism about mind. I claim that the Everett interpretation and functionalism about mind are not both true. The argument is fairly simple. Any two worlds that are isomorphic under an isomorphism of the quantum structure (i.e., of the Hilbert spaces and the operator algebras) have the same functional properties. Now consider two worlds w. Is an exact duplicate of the temporal portion of our world from a billion years ago to the present. Then w.

alexanderpruss.blogspot.com

Alexander Pruss's Blog: Probability and normativity

http://alexanderpruss.blogspot.com/2015/05/probability-and-normativity.html

Friday, May 8, 2015. The Born rule is a central part of quantum mechanics that tells us that the. Of a particle detector detecting a particle in a region U. Is equal to ∫. Where ψ is normalized. There are: what credences agents should assign to outcomes. The simplest version of the bridge is identity: take "probability" to mean an appropriate conditional rational credence. If that's done, then quantum mechanics is directly a normative theory: it tells us what we should believe. On other interpretations, ...

alexanderpruss.blogspot.com

Alexander Pruss's Blog: Divine Belief Simplicity

http://alexanderpruss.blogspot.com/2015/05/divine-belief-simplicity.html

Thursday, May 7, 2015. Divine Belief Simplicity is the thesis that all of God's acts of belief are the same act of belief, the same belief token. While my belief that 2 2=4 seems distinct from my belief that the sky is blue, God's believings are all one. This is a special case of divine simplicity. Here is an argument for Divine Belief Simplicity. The primary alternative to Divine Belief Simplicity is:. Divine Belief Diversity: God's act of believing p. Is distinct from God's act of believing q. There is...