30. March 2010 by Raleigh Miller.

I want to follow up on some of the issues on the strip clubs post below, and I want to get back to writing on philosophy, all after i finish this damned paper on tense and temporal passage.  But I just wanted to ask something…real real quick…

Apparently this has been rocking everyone’s world recently, findings that show that erectile dysfunction is a predictor of heart disease.

There’s an interesting explanation as to why this could be the case, that the arteries in the penis are thinner and thus get clogged more easily, so the early signs of heart disease might have their first manifestations in the penis…

But isn’t there a far easier explanation? Shouldn’t we have expected this all along?

I want to publish a study that shows a link between extra-large sweatshirts and heart disease.  I CAN HAZ GRANT MONEY PLEEZ?

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27. March 2010 by Raleigh Miller.

Recently, Iceland banned strip clubs.  In response, I posted that link on facebook, along with the message:

 ”I almost wrote that I had ‘mixed feelings’ on this, but then I thought for 3.5 more seconds…and decided my feelings weren’t mixed at all.  I’m in favor.  Well done, Iceland.”

This immediately gave rise to a lively debate, which was inexpressibly helpful, interesting, and clarificatory.  With the contibutors’ permission, I’ve reproduced the conversation in full. Given that this took place on facebook, please forgive any expressive laxity, including mistakes in spelling, grammar, or any unsettling casualness of tone.

  Read the rest of this entry »

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25. March 2010 by Raleigh Miller.

Dish of the Day:  Macfarlane, John.  Assessment Sensitivity. Drafts of chapters 1 and 2.

This is the beginning of Macfarlane’s manuscript defending the newest manifestation of relativism.  This manuscript will be the basis for the first several weeks of Stewart Shapiro’s class on Relativism, Contextualism, and Assessment sensitivity.  This is my first time looking at it, and I will have much more to say about this book later on, I’ve no doubt at all.  Here I just make a few inane points, semi-autobiographical, quirky and only mildly insightful.  Like Glenn Beck’s interview with Eric Massa, it’s possible I’ll now waste an hour of your time.  [Incidentally, as per the request at the beginning of MacFarlane’s manuscript, I refrain from directly quoting anything from the manuscript]. Read the rest of this entry »

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24. March 2010 by Raleigh Miller.

First, two administrative notes: I have added one of my recent papers, “Justification and Seeming States” to my papers.  Second, I wish to extend my sincere congratulations to Seeking Logos contributor Nathan Smith.  A few weeks ago, Nathan passed his candidacy exam, the first major hurdle (if you don’t count admission) to the completion of the PhD.  Nathan now looks ahead and sets to work on his qualifier and dissertation.  Congratulations to other OSU students for their completion, as well as several of my former colleagues at Georgia State for their completion of the M.A. and some of their very impressive PhD placements.  I look forward to bragging about having known you all when you were mere students. Moving along…

Dish of the Day: Schlesinger, George. Aspects of Time.  Chapters 1 and 2.  Hackett, 1990.

 Eric Olson has argued against the theory that time passes.  Further, he has boldly asserted that his arguments have grander implications.  The passage of the time is a condition of the dynamic view of time.  Further, the dynamic view of time is a condition of the A-theory of time, or tense.  Therefore, A-theories are false. Read the rest of this entry »

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23. March 2010 by Raleigh Miller.

Dish of the day:  Plato’s Republic, Books I-V.  (Ferrari (ed) and Griffith (trans).  Cambridge University Press).

 I would imagine that many regard books three and five of the Republic as appalling and repugnant.  In book three, Socrates lays out, in very specific detail, the sorts of forms of art that would be most optimal for a just society.  Forms that differ from the chosen ideals are swiftly outlawed. Myths and stories that portray the suffering and fallibility of Gods and heroes are discarded for the potential effects they may have on the worldview of the consumers.  Imitative dramas are discarded for their propensity to induce inauthenticity. In book five, the coherence and balance of society is shown to require that all private property and exclusive relations (e.g. marital or parental relations between individuals to the exclusion of others) be abolished in favor of communitarian living.  And the sheer practical difficulty of such social organization requires that the ruling power be a philosopher-king. Read the rest of this entry »

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