(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]

*** Borderless Philosophy’s Editorial Team is pleased to announce a Third and Final Call for Submissions for our ninth issue (2026), on the special topic: “We Were Supposed to Be Self-Guided: The Fate of Autonomy in The Present Era.” TOPIC DESCRIPTION: In “The Aufklaerung Song,” the philosophically-minded rock band Johannes Faustus sang: “We were supposed … [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]

“The Death of Socrates By Means of The American Philosophical Association,” by Q (2013), after “The Death of Socrates,” by Jacques-Louis David (1787) In his essay, “Six Studies in The Decline and Fall of Professional Academic Philosophy, And A Real and Relevant Alternative,” Robert Hanna argues that academics in general, and academic philosophers in particular, … [continue reading]

“Drawing Hands” (M.C. Escher, 1943) 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 post and clicking on the Download icon. The Metalinguistic Modus Ponens Paradox This version of the Curry paradox (Curry, 1942a, 1942b) relies on a self-referential … [continue reading]

In “The New Conflict of the Faculties: Kant, Radical Enlightenment, The Hyper-State, and How to Philosophize During a Pandemic,” Robert Hanna applies a Kant-inspired interpretation of enlightenment as radical enlightenment to the enterprise of philosophy within the context of our contemporary world-situation, and try to answer this very hard question: “As radically enlightened Kantian philosophers … [continue reading]

(FreePik, 2025) 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 post and clicking on the Download tab. Intractability in Cognitive Science: Further Problems for Mechanism 1. Introduction In an earlier essay, we explored and critically exposed the inherent … [continue reading]