Thus profound metaphysics is rooted in an implicit geometry which —whether we will or not—confers spatiality upon thought; if a metaphysician could not draw, what would he think? —Gaston Bachelard, Dialectics of Inside and Outside [I]f pure experience means to know things just as they are, then simplicity or passivity are not characteristics of it––the … [continue reading]
THE NEW YORK SPACETIMES, #6–Reflections on Axiality and the History of Science II: Towards a New Critical Theory of Science and a New Kind of Science.
THE NEW YORK SPACETIMES, by Michael Cifone, is a series about philosophy, society, politics, and everything else, starting from New York City and radiating outwards, borderlessly and unboundedly. He has worked on the philosophy and metaphysics of natural science, with a special focus on relativity and quantum theories, and on the philosophy of science more … [continue reading]
MORALITY AND THE HUMAN CONDITION, #22–All About Authenticity.
Table of Contents I. Introduction II. The Standard Conception of Morality II.1 The Moral Question and The Meaning Question II.2 How Ethics Relates to Morality II.3 How Morality Relates to Rationality II.4 Six Famously Hard Cases III. Three Classical Challenges to the Standard Conception of Morality III.1 Moral Relativism III.2 Eight Logical Principles of Human … [continue reading]
Popular Philosophy, “Populist Philosophy,” Mind-Manacled Philosophy, and Real Philosophy.
You can download a .pdf version of this edgy essay HERE. In every cry of every Man,In every Infants cry of fear,In every voice: in every ban,The mind-forg’d manacles I hear.[i] [P]hilosophy recovers itself when it ceases to be a device for dealing with the problems of philosophers and becomes a method, cultivated by philosophers, … [continue reading]
THE NEW YORK SPACETIMES, #5–Reflections on Axiality and the History of Science I: Kuhnian Themes.
THE NEW YORK SPACETIMES, by Michael Cifone, is a series about philosophy, society, politics, and everything else, starting from New York City and radiating outwards, borderlessly and unboundedly. He has worked on the philosophy and metaphysics of natural science, with a special focus on relativity and quantum theories, and on the philosophy of science more … [continue reading]
MORALITY AND THE HUMAN CONDITION, #21–Camus and Affirmation.
Table of Contents I. Introduction II. The Standard Conception of Morality II.1 The Moral Question and The Meaning Question II.2 How Ethics Relates to Morality II.3 How Morality Relates to Rationality II.4 Six Famously Hard Cases III. Three Classical Challenges to the Standard Conception of Morality III.1 Moral Relativism III.2 Eight Logical Principles of Human … [continue reading]
THE LIMITS OF SENSE AND REASON: A Line-By-Line Critical Commentary on Kant’s “Critique of Pure Reason,” #5.
[I] was then making plans for a work that might perhaps have the title, “The Limits of Sense and Reason.” I planned to have it consist of two parts, a theoretical and a practical. The first part would have two sections, (1) general phenomenology and (2) metaphysics, but this only with regard to its method. … [continue reading]
The Pragmatics of Saying “All Lives Matter”: A Critique.
By “lives,” I mean the total collection of event-sequences running all the way from the birth of consciousness in any individual human organism to its organic and/or psychological destruction or death, as it applies to human persons, i.e., self-conscious, rational, spontaneously self-legislating, and also caring, desiring, feeling, imagining, perceiving, and remembering (or in general: sensible) … [continue reading]
THE NEW YORK SPACETIMES, #4–Thinking in End Times: Axial Consciousness Now.
THE NEW YORK SPACETIMES, by Michael Cifone, is a series about philosophy, society, politics, and everything else, starting from New York City and radiating outwards, borderlessly and unboundedly. He has worked on the philosophy and metaphysics of natural science, with a special focus on relativity and quantum theories, and on the philosophy of science more … [continue reading]
MORALITY AND THE HUMAN CONDITION, #20–Nagel and The Absurd.
Table of Contents I. Introduction II. The Standard Conception of Morality II.1 The Moral Question and The Meaning Question II.2 How Ethics Relates to Morality II.3 How Morality Relates to Rationality II.4 Six Famously Hard Cases III. Three Classical Challenges to the Standard Conception of Morality III.1 Moral Relativism III.2 Eight Logical Principles of Human … [continue reading]