Scottish Nous

Olsen Calls AIDS "God's Judgment on Gays"

Red Olsen had found the bright, cheerful expression on NCC reporter Kaitlyn Shield's face somewhat disconcerting given the subject matter of the broadcast.  Just last week, Red had earmarked his entire weekly tithe, one hundred dollars to be exact, to an organization devoted to providing daily milk to some one hundred Ethiopian children orphaned as a result of the HIV epidemic sweeping the nation.  This was unusual, since Red's Southern Baptist Church, Washed In The Blood Temple of the Holy Spirit and Rain Deliverance, which had just moved into a brand new building constructed in nouveau architectural style in the heart of the downtown business disctrict, preferred that their members trust them with the budgetary concerns, particularly since they were in the midst of a several million dollar fundraising campaign to pay off their  hefty construction loans.

Virtuous Circles

I've begun working on a paper on epistemic circularity, and I'd like to know if anyone has some favorite quotes (you'd probably only collect these in your mental filing system if you're also interested in the same topic) by reasonably well-respected philosophers on the subject of "virtuous circles".  The term "vicious circle" has been around for a long time, and I suspect that the adjectival modification was not originally attached to discriminate between classes of circular arguments on the basis of their respective epistemic merits, but rather solely for rhetorical emphasis.  The earliest use of "virtuous circle" that I'm familiar with occurs in Goodman's "The New Riddle of Induction", and I'm inclined to believe that the usage has drastically increased in the five decades since, although I can't produce proof of this claim.  Any comments?  (Look below the fold for some fun religious quotes about the benefits of circular reasonong.)

The Gates

I followed a link from Crooked Timber and found this review of "The Gates".  You must read it, and I simply can't reiterate that either frequently or strongly enough.  Here's one quote:

The dialectic of Christo's "Gates" is a reflection of the post-9/11zeitgeist, absent the schadenfreude qua nervousness that has gripped the American populace in this world of "now-more-than-ever." The semiotics of the saffron (en)robes serves an ontological function...

The "semiotics of the saffron"?  The "schadenfreude qua nervousness"?  I think I'll give up blogging posthaste.  I do not, will not, cannot, (perhaps should not?), write like this.  But it's brilliant nonetheless!  If you want to explore the effect too much continental philosophy, postmodern literature, and/or hallucinogenic substances will have on your poetic prose, give this pure example of trafficking in the sensuous pedantry of multi-linguistic disquisition a look-see.

Hunter S. Thompson Dies

He put one bullet through his head here in Colorado.  CNN has the story.

Every Five Minutes

Brent J. Brents, local serial rapist/pedophile, "admitted in November to Aurora police that he inappropriately touched an 8-year-old boy."  Brents was not arrested for fondling the eight year old, despite the fact that he has criminal record of sexual assault a mile long which includes a grisly case of raping a young boy in a trash bin.  Aurora's Police Chief insists he did no wrong, but his failure to arrest Brents resulted in at least six more sexual assaults in the ensuing five months.  You can read the full story at the Denver Post.

Carnival of the Godless

The fourth Carnival of the Godless is being hosted by Philosophy, et cetera.

What New Riddle of Induction?

Why do I do this?  Anyway, here's a precis of my paper on Goodman, Hume, and The New Riddle of Induction.  It's not like this hasn't been discussed enough (one bibliography on the literature runs hundreds and hundreds of pages), so this should be taken strictly as an exercise for my own benefit.  If you have more devious purposes in mind, such as criticizing my writing style or philosophical ideas, here's some fodder.

Internalism OR Fallibilism?

Ram Neta has what looks to be an interesting paper up at Certain Doubts regarding internalism and fallibilism.  I have too much to do, but I can't wait to get to this!  In it, he argues that if internalism is true, then fallibilism is false.  I've been thinking about my epistemological commitments of late, and it has indeed seemed to me that I can't consistently be an internalist and a fallibilist (at least with respect to some matters).  Of course, I wouldn't have dared to suggest as much, but Ram Neta has!  If the scope of the certain knowledge is narrow enough, perhaps one could live with it - otherwise one might think you have a quick reductio ad absurdum of internalism.  It's really much too soon to speculate about his conclusions, but I'm just too excited!  (Also, a first glance at the first page seems to indicate that he's operating with a very restrictive version of access internalism which may permit a more moderate internalist a way out.)  Since I haven't read the paper yet, I'll shut up now.

Martians!

New evidence of life on Mars?  See here.  I take it that it's reasonable to expect that there's life on Mars, given the obvious interplanetary transportation vehicles available to such life.  (I'm trying to sound loony.)  But seriously, big rocks and chunks of dirt do travel back (and forth?) between Mars and Earth.  Why not think an extremophile or two hitched a ride?  Some of those little buggers can withstand insane temperatures and pressures, as well as munch glass, eat rocks, and feed on sulfur or hydrogen.  So our current fellow Martians may not be that complex, but Martians they nonetheless are.  The interesting question is this: Which came first?  The Martian or the Earthling? [Via For the Record]

Eklund to Cornell

The news was broken here first, but Leiter recently got wind of Cornell's offer to Matti Eklund.  Now it appears that my colleague has started scooping me, but Eklund has accepted Cornell's offer.  Eklund is an amazing up and coming metaphysician, and he will be much better off at Cornell. Though it's not good for us (or more precisely, the Ph.D. candidate metaphysicians) to lose him, I think most of the M&E students are quite happpy for him.  Congratulations, Matti!

You can read about CU's departmental woes here if you like.  In better news, we have made two more job offers to excellent candidates Chris Heathwood and Kris McDaniel.  This meant not extending an initial offer to Ryan Wasserman. (Why can't we hire three candidates?)