Why, oh why, do theists think that the only source of morality is religion? They often state this as obvious, without argument, and assume that atheists have no way to account for morality. Now, theists have wised up a bit and noted that they needn’t say that all atheists are immoral people in [...]
Archive > January 2008
Top Albums of 2007 (+ Top Disappointments)
Many people are doing Top Albums of 2007 lists, I know (e.g. Pitchfork, I Guess I’m Floating, Trendwhore). But I think it’s a good way to share music. It’s a way to filter out the best of the best according to people you trust and then not having to waste your time sifting [...]
Philosophers In the News (Appiah)
Kwame Anthony Appiah, a philosopher at Princeton, was on NPR’s Talk of the Nation on January 3rd, 2008. Listen to it here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17815241
He discusses the interesting new area of philosophy called experimental philosophy (“x-phi” for short). (He recently published—in December of 2007—an article in the New York Times on the same topic.)
New Music: Kenna
So there’s this band called Kenna (named after the singer) and they have a bit of an odd story. Part of Kenna’s story is featured in Malcom Gladwell’s book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (2005). Gladwell talks about how Kenna’s first album, New Sacred Cow (2003), impressed many “music experts” so [...]
Fodor on Problems with Evolution
Jerry Fodor, a philosopher at Rutgers, fairly recently (Oct. 2007) published an article in the London Review of Books entitled “Why Pigs Don’t Have Wings” in which he purports to provide a critique of the traditional Darwinian account of evolution. Here’s the link:
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n20/fodo01_.html
Fodor is a pretty famous philosopher,
