Philosophical bites: Empiricism vs. Rationalism

There’s a popular YouTube channel titled ‘Bite-sized Philosophy,’ which as its name suggests provides concise summaries pertaining to philosophical matters. Here is my bite-sized summary of Empiricism vs. Rationalism. Consider a cooking range that has four or more individual stove tops. There is also a ‘key’ that shows which knob corresponds to which stove top.… Continue reading Philosophical bites: Empiricism vs. Rationalism

there is an underlying reason for everything that happens

People who are really smart can still fall prey to even the most obvious, in retrospect, cognitive biases and blind spots. That is the difference between someone who understands how things work and applies rationalism, and someone who doesn’t. But one doesn’t need to understand everything either. Why does Bitcoin keep going up? Who knows,… Continue reading there is an underlying reason for everything that happens

Individual Ideological & Philosophical Classification System

Inspired a Quilette post Universalism Not Centrism, I’m working on a classification system that can be applied to ideological groups and individuals, and to summarize key points. The goal is to create a classification system that encompasses most individuals and ideologies. Defnitions: Intersectionality: a concept in social theory in which the whole is greater than… Continue reading Individual Ideological & Philosophical Classification System

Everyone is a Realist

This from alfanl caught my attention: The only blot on Landry’s internet career was his public accusation that Spandrell was toxic. This was silly. You can’t demand that a gloomy realist becomes a positivist. It’s like demanding that Trump talks like a Harvard man. It’s just not what they do. The day Spandrell’s blog becomes… Continue reading Everyone is a Realist

Jordan Peterson and the Evolution of Marxism

Errata & addenda: Updated Steelmanning to reconcile confusion over inductive vs. deductive. Updated Defending Postmodernism to include Jean-François Lyotard and criticism of Whig history. According to Peterson, the Marxists changed their strategy in the 60’s and 70’s from embracing Marxism as a economic system, to a cultural one, which is called postmodernism. I don’t agree… Continue reading Jordan Peterson and the Evolution of Marxism

Jordan Peterson, SJWs, and Postmodernists

Upon listening to several of Jordan Peterson’s videos on SJWs, his conclusion is that SJWs are postmodernists and thus suppress speech (such as protesting speakers, but even going so far as physical assault) because postmodernists reject ‘logic and truth’. In writing my earlier post Defending Postmodernism, gave me pause about Jordan’s theory. How does one… Continue reading Jordan Peterson, SJWs, and Postmodernists

Defending Postmodernism

In an earlier post, perhaps I was too hard on postmodernism. From Jordan Peterson: He says they don’t have gratitude, presumably directed at millennials who are being brainwashed with postmodernism but unaware of it, but also directed at the postmodernists themselves, who are doing the brainwashing. Regarding socioeconomic outcomes, in agreement with Peterson, the postmodernist… Continue reading Defending Postmodernism

Stuck in the quicksand of philosophy

The System that Wasn’t There: Ayn Rand’s Failed Philosophy (and why it matters) -Nicholas McGinnis Unsurprisingly, the politicians and businessmen who admire Rand focus on such policy recommendations and are rather less familiar with, for instance, her grounds for rejecting the analytic-synthetic distinction. There’s a radical disconnect between the impact her political thought and the… Continue reading Stuck in the quicksand of philosophy

A systems-based approach to rationalism

Most discussions of rationalism involve the study of cognitive biases, personality, and human behavior, but, imho, a ‘systems/logical’ approach to rationalism is more propitious than understanding cognitive biases and human behavior. I believe that rationalism is to choose the optimal choice of all available options. Once one acquires an understanding of the fundamentals of an… Continue reading A systems-based approach to rationalism

How much should a philosopher be blamed for the consequences of his beliefs

Marxist Origins of Communism, I Communism is, he explains, “the positive transcendence of private property, or human self-estrangement, and therefore the real appropriation of the human essence by and for man… the complete return of man to himself as a social being…” (Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844) Innumerable social thinkers disagree with much of… Continue reading How much should a philosopher be blamed for the consequences of his beliefs