philosophicalpotpourri.blogspot.com
Miscellaneous Moments: Pons Asinorum
http://philosophicalpotpourri.blogspot.com/2013/05/pons-asinorum.html
Short essays by Joel Marks (on topics other than ethics and astronomy). Thursday, May 09, 2013. Magazine, no. 35, March/April 2002, page 48. Soon, however, I came up with this surprising conclusion: There is no thirtieth euro! The travelers ended up paying 27 euros. The proprietor had 25, and the bellhop kept two. Bent at the waterline (due to the refraction of light). Just so, I now knew there was no thirtieth euro, but I couldn't dispel the mental impression that there was. 27 euros. Then indeed th...
philosophicalpotpourri.blogspot.com
Miscellaneous Moments: Desire – Thirty Years Later
http://philosophicalpotpourri.blogspot.com/2013/05/desire-thirty-years-later.html
Short essays by Joel Marks (on topics other than ethics and astronomy). Friday, May 10, 2013. Desire Thirty Years Later. Issue No. 93, November/December 2012, p. 44. In 1982 I had my first major philosophical publication, a journal article entitled A Theory of Emotion ( Philosophical Studies. Say, that one was about to be mauled by a rabid dog, and yet not be in an emotional state unless one also possessed a. Not to be so mauled. I analyzed these as belief/desire sets, but now without the strong desire q...
philosophicalpotpourri.blogspot.com
Miscellaneous Moments: May 2008
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Short essays by Joel Marks (on topics other than ethics and astronomy). Tuesday, May 20, 2008. Car Seats and the Absurd. Magazine, no. 38, October/Novemeber 2002, page 51. The extra minute you take to secure your child into her car seat could be just what it takes to bring your whole family into the path of a Mack truck half an hour down the road. Singing the praises of car seats because your child's life has just been saved by one seems, therefore, as odd as extolling the virtues of kidnappers because y...
philosophicalpotpourri.blogspot.com
Miscellaneous Moments: Stop Think
http://philosophicalpotpourri.blogspot.com/2013/04/stop-think.html
Short essays by Joel Marks (on topics other than ethics and astronomy). Sunday, April 21, 2013. Published in Philosophy Now. Magazine, issue no. 55, May/June 2006, page 38. My stepson once gave me a book entitled Jewish as a Second Language. Fortunately, there is an alternative method of philosophizing which is almost the exact opposite of worrying. It is so different, in fact, that many so-called WESTERN. The method is simplicity itself. You say a word (the MANTRA. Well, of course that's not all there i...
philosophicalpotpourri.blogspot.com
Miscellaneous Moments: Science and Philosophy: Vive la Différence!
http://philosophicalpotpourri.blogspot.com/2011/06/science-and-philosophy-vive-la.html
Short essays by Joel Marks (on topics other than ethics and astronomy). Sunday, June 19, 2011. Science and Philosophy: Vive la Différence! Originally published in Philosophy Now. Magazine, no. 33, September/October 2001, page 31. The work of the philosopher consists in assembling reminders for a particular purpose. Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations (3rd ed., tr. G.E.M. Anscombe), item #127. Seeking and learning are in fact nothing but recollection. Shouldn't I be more Zen? Furthermore, science c...
longermoments.blogspot.com
Longer Moments: Stones and Fish Falling from the Sky
http://longermoments.blogspot.com/2006/09/stones-and-fish-falling-from-sky.html
Essays by Joel Marks. Monday, September 04, 2006. Stones and Fish Falling from the Sky. SOME SALIENT FACTS AND SURMISES. Sky and Telescope ( http:/ skyandtelescope.com/. And Wikipedia ( http:/ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main Page. See also Bill Arnett’s cornucopian labor of love, Nine (now Ten! Planets, et al. at http:/ bill.nineplanets.org/offerings.html. And the compendious Spaceguard Page of the Australian Planetary Society at http:/ www4.tpg.com.au/users/tps-seti/spacegd.html. There are various proposals ...
longermoments.blogspot.com
Longer Moments: September 2006
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Essays by Joel Marks. Monday, September 04, 2006. Stones and Fish Falling from the Sky. SOME SALIENT FACTS AND SURMISES. Sky and Telescope ( http:/ skyandtelescope.com/. And Wikipedia ( http:/ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main Page. See also Bill Arnett’s cornucopian labor of love, Nine (now Ten! Planets, et al. at http:/ bill.nineplanets.org/offerings.html. And the compendious Spaceguard Page of the Australian Planetary Society at http:/ www4.tpg.com.au/users/tps-seti/spacegd.html. There are various proposals ...
philosophicalastronomy.blogspot.com
Philosophical Astronomy: November 2013
http://philosophicalastronomy.blogspot.com/2013_11_01_archive.html
Reflections on the cosmos and the scientific study thereof by Joel Marks. Tuesday, November 26, 2013. A Comet with Our Name on It? Published in the Connecticut Post. On November 25, 2013. But comets are not just pretty sights and photo ops. We now know from scientific inquiry what our medieval ancestors feared from superstition, namely, that a comet in the sky can be the harbinger of disaster. It may very well have been a comet that killed off the dinosaurs. The same could happen to us. What I find excee...