Still from Gesaffelstein’s video clip for their song “Hard Dreams.” Dir. J. Hemingway/Division, J. de Chateleux, 2024 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Three Central Questions 3. Reflection and its Limits: A Historical Sketch 4. The Refractive Element 5. Conclusion: Refraction and Thinking as a Field of Action The essay below has been published in … [continue reading]

(Lewandowsky et al., 2012: p. 122) On the whole, philosophical correspondence and philosophical conversation alike are often interesting and productive, and sometimes profoundly significant. Indeed, sometimes philosophical correspondence and philosophical conversation are mind-changing or life-changing, and even—in accordance with Marx’s famous dictum that thus far philosophers have only ever interpreted the world in different ways, … [continue reading]

(Murray, 2024) TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Cronin-Walker Assembly Theory and the Anti-Reductionist Turn 3. Physics is Not Causally Closed: Nicolas Gisin’s Anti-Mechanism 4. Barbara Drossel’s Anti-Reductionism 5. Donald Hoffman’s Case Against Reality: There are No Brains 6. Colin McGinn’s Basic Structures of Reality: A Philosophical Analysis of Physics-Based Metaphysics and Structural Realism 7. … [continue reading]

Still from Gesaffelstein’s video clip for their song “Hard Dreams.” Dir. J. Hemingway/Division, J. de Chateleux, 2024 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Three Central Questions 3. Reflection and its Limits: A Historical Sketch 4. The Refractive Element 5. Conclusion: Refraction and Thinking as a Field of Action The essay below will be published in … [continue reading]

According to Robert Hanna in his essay “What Can Kantian Philosophy Do for Humanity? From Leonard Nelson to Phildialogues,” broadly Kantian philosophy—by which Hanna means philosophy inspired by Kant’s work, but neither dogmatically restricted to Kant’s own texts nor in any way committed to Kant’s own philosophical errors or personal prejudices—is profoundly relevant to the … [continue reading]

(Murray, 2024) TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Cronin-Walker Assembly Theory and the Anti-Reductionist Turn 3. Physics is Not Causally Closed: Nicolas Gisin’s Anti-Mechanism 4. Barbara Drossel’s Anti-Reductionism 5. Donald Hoffman’s Case Against Reality: There are No Brains 6. Colin McGinn’s Basic Structures of Reality: A Philosophical Analysis of Physics-Based Metaphysics and Structural Realism 7. … [continue reading]

(Breu the Elder, 1531)[i] PREVIOUS INSTALLMENTS #1: Introduction #2: From Astrology to “Artificial Intelligence” #3: Patterns and Algorithms #4: Extending Algorithms #5: Enumeration and Incompleteness #6: Changing the Vantage Point You can also download and read or share a .pdf of the complete text of this essay by scrolling down to the bottom of this … [continue reading]

Still from Gesaffelstein’s video clip for their song “Hard Dreams.” Dir. J. Hemingway/Division, J. de Chateleux, 2024 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Three Central Questions 3. Reflection and its Limits: A Historical Sketch 4. The Refractive Element 5. Conclusion: Refraction and Thinking as a Field of Action The essay below will be published in … [continue reading]

(Guardian, 2025) In his essay, “Why Mainstream Contemporary Professional Academic Philosophy Could Be Done By Chatbots,” Robert Hanna argues that if formal methods really are central to contemporary philosophy, then mainstream contemporary professional academic philosophy could be done by the most sophisticated chatbots—say, by ChatGPT-5, or whatever. In order to prove this, he reproduces an … [continue reading]

(Murray, 2024) TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Cronin-Walker Assembly Theory and the Anti-Reductionist Turn 3. Physics is Not Causally Closed: Nicolas Gisin’s Anti-Mechanism 4. Barbara Drossel’s Anti-Reductionism 5. Donald Hoffman’s Case Against Reality: There are No Brains 6. Colin McGinn’s Basic Structures of Reality: A Philosophical Analysis of Physics-Based Metaphysics and Structural Realism 7. … [continue reading]