Aristotelian vs. Analytic Logic
James Chastek has more on the difference between a logic that sees the basic unit of analysis as the term, and one that sees it as the proposition.
Cross-posted to Dead Philosophers Society
Philosophy
Seven Intriguing Questions in Modern Physics
The New Scientist has an article on seven unsolved dilemmas in the field of physics today. Just a hunch here, but for 3 of the 7, the reason these questions keep physicists up at night is that they are metaphysical questions that are beyond the scope of physics. It'
Just whose side are you on, robo-traitor?
Robin Hanson asked his students what kind of robots they would like to see, and didn't like the answer.
On Tuesday I asked my law & econ undergrads what sort of future robots (AIs computers etc.) they would want, if they could have any sort they wanted. Most
Big 5 Personality Traits: OCEAN
I have mentioned the Big 5 personality traits before, and the biggest of them all is Conscientiousness. Conscientiousness, or C, is a measure of one's ability to buckle down and work hard, especially at unpleasant tasks. It is correlated with job performance and doing well in school. It
Free Range Children
The Magistra is sometimes amazed that I survived my childhood, given the kinds of things my best friend and I used to do. However, we're both much more risk-tolerant than seems the norm these days. Kids pretty much never get to to anything fun, and I'm
Edward Feser on Teleology
At Edward Feser's blog, he talks about the relations between algorithms, information theory, and teleology. He is addressing the question of whether the algorithm-like behavior that we can observe in the natural world means there is purpose in the natural world. This is addressed in Feser's
Intelligence and Conscientiousness
Another interesting editorial from Bruce Charlton, Reliable but dumb or smart but slapdash? Comparing and contrasting g and C as measurable, inheritable traits. Both intelligence and conscientiousness are associated with more success in life, generally considered, and are independent of one another in the statistical sense.
Charlton has an interesting