Scottish Nous

De Finibus V

I'm simply expressing irritation that Tully's De Finibus V is available nowhere on the internet in English translation.  The Sophia Project has books I-IV, and Perseus has none of it.  What are all you Latin scholars busy doing?

Lydia McGrew Religious Too!

Wow.  I didn't know this, but epistemological bad-ass Lydia McGrew is quite religious.  I cite a column of hers, Reality Incognito, as evidence.  I was tipped off by the comments on this post at In Hoc Signo Vinces, where she scores major points (above and beyond those already earned by writing on topics I'm interested in, such as epistemic circularity) by confessing subscription to substance dualism, a view towards which I am strongly inclined.  My mental list of theistic epistemologists is almost getting too long to keep track of!  (At this point, I think it's fair to say that we have a phenomenon on our hands.  In function form, sensus divinatus coinstantiated with philosophical predilection is very likely to equal epistemologist.)  Of course, one should not infer from my here recorded inclination to buy substance dualism that I agree with her assesment of the Terri Schiavo case found in the above linked comments.  I simply retain the theory while rejecting the excess religious baggage, thereby avoiding the crude empiricism she astutely rails against, though also relieving myself of pressure to commit to the "right to life" of all "ensouled" beings (of a certain form, perhaps), Terri included.

My First Tarring

Over at Siris I have been linked and skewered (though with no trackback!)  Apparently, my blogging "tactics" are annoying.  My very brief post on The Poetry of Dr. Chesire garnered at least one negative reaction: 

It would be nice if people pretending to say rational things would also at least pretend to make rational arguments.

Of course, my post was not intended as a debunking of the good doctor's metaphysics.  Instead, I simply found it utterly hilarious - a regular laugh riot - and thought I'd share.  But perhaps Dr. Chesire should take something like Siris' advice and attempt to make rational arguments instead of pretending to write poetry.

Plantinga in the News

CU's own Michael Tooley is mentioned in this article about Alvin Plantinga!  If memory serves, the co-authored book mentioned in the article, a debate over the existence of God, should be out within the year - assuming Tooley and Plantinga meet their deadlines, of course.  In the article, Plantinga is quoted as reporting an occasionally occuring subjective sense of certainity over the veridicality of the Passion narrative.  Indeed, Plantinga seems to think that the narrative sporadically appears "as obvious as that I live in Indiana."  Hmmm...  I'd be inclined to take such a seeming (with its inverted spectrum of obviousness) as evidence of a cognitive malfunction, but I suppose that would just beg the question against Plantinga.

The article (which is mostly pap) also puts Plantinga squarely on the evidentialist side, portraying him as relying in large part on (the inner testimony of the Holy Spirit aside) the alleged accuracy of historical reports and their prior improbability of their descriptive content on the hypothesis that Jesus was not God.   Testimony of the Holy Spirit aside, I think the evidentialist route is one that any rational apologist will have to take. [Fides Quaerens Intellectum disputes the contention that Plantinga buttresses his "seemings" with evidentialist arguments, but I think too quickly.]  Unfortunately, even granting rough historical accuracy, I see no reason to think that the prior probability of the spread of Christianity, the faith of the apostles and disciplies, their gruesome deaths, etc... is low given the not-God hypothesis.  Just look at the Mormons. (They report a "burning in the bosom" when reading the Book of Mormon too, incidentally.  That subjective sense of certainity in the truth of the text at hand just won't go away...)  [via Prosblogion]

Churchill Report

You may view the "Report on Conclusion of Preliminary Review in the Matter of Professor Ward Churchill" here.  I will briefly summarize the conclusions (in my own words).  First, the committee concluded that the members of fascist America who wish to use the strong arm of the government to enforce their agenda and notion of moral or permissible speech could take their requests for Churchill's firing, in so far as that request was based upon his political diatribe, and stuff it up their posteriors.  Next, the committee conclude that while Churchill has evidenced no teaching misconduct, certain accusations of plagiarism and research miscondunct must be pursued.  These accusations, as well as the question of whether or not Churchill has misrepresented his heritage in an attempt to secure scholarly credibility, will be referred to the Committee on Research Misconduct for further inquiry. 

The University is clearly taking the right course of action here.  If Churchill has portrayed himself as the author of another's work, then he absolutely deserves to be fired, no matter how such allegations were uncovered or brought to light.  Intellectual theft is despicable and intolerable.  But for now, I'm just taking a lot of glee in witnessing the fascist little screaming sycophants (such as Dan Caplis and Craig Silverman of Denver's KHOW ) get billy-clubbed in their abominable attempt to mobilize armies of ranting and raving lemmings in the service of their agenda to use the government [such as weak-willed and frail-minded Gov. Bill Owens (R)] to promote their narrow notion of what should constitute free speech and intimdate those who disagree with them - no matter how offensive said speech may be.  Fortunately, members of the academic community at CU now have less to fear from ratings-pursuing, hatchet-wielding mental midgets such as Caplis and Silverman.

The Poetry of Dr. Chesire

The bizarre poetry of Dr. Chesire can be found here.  [Via Left2Right]  A stanza or four (of the thirty-four):

The one firm reference point of truth,
Is where God’s precious blood was poured:
Grand vertical straight azimuth,
The cross of Jesus Christ the Lord.         

His cross establishes the sign
That orients the soul to see,
His outstretched arms the level line
Of horizontal certainty.

I take this to be metaphorical epistemological nonsense.  The nonsense is preceded in poetic form by a slippery slope argument:

Authority once granted makes
The next step that much easier still.
Removal of restrictions takes
Us further down a murderous hill.

As ethical constraints give way,         
Down go the lowly euthanists.         
Headlong they plunge, their morals stray         
Into a bleak, black, deep abyss –

There you have it, folks.  Poet-philosopher Chesire strikes the wicked advocates of euthanasia down with a slippery slope argument and an appeal to the suffering of Christ (which, of course, did not come close to approaching the suffering of some of those individuals who are begging to end their tortured lives).  One again, religion turns an otherwise educated man into a raving lunatic who has lost all sensitivity for the dictates of morality.

Slow Blogging & Dasein

Blogging will be slow for awhile, as the semester is winding to a close.  Meanwhile, consider the title my illustrious roommate, Ricardo Morsella, has chosen for the second section of his current paper: The Thematization of the Question of Being: The Ground of the Emergence of Dasein as the Necessary Field of Inquiry for the Elucidation of the Phenomena of Time and Being.  No comment.  (Posted with his permission.)

Link Blogging

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith's trailer.
Pseudo-artist Sophie Krier is selling fiberboard cutouts of lamps - "Fake Lamp"  - for $1,100.
Hitachi releases their attempt at a humanoid robot, "Emiew", but cheats by giving it wheels.
For IM users, Locus looks fun. It visually depicts relations between members of your buddy lists.
Recent studies suggest that the cute robot Kismet inspires more charitable giving behavior.
The berries gallery for "children who love Allah... and Jihad."
A Quicktime capture of Harry Frankfurt's "bullshit" interview with John Stewart here.
Finally, rest your weary head on scantily-clad legs of urethane foam: the girlfriend's lap pillow.

McDonalds Franchise in Church

"It's unholy to be unprofitable at this point", says Brentwood Baptist church's Pastor Joe Ratliff.  Thus the inclusion of a McDonald's franchise in the seven million dollar Joe Samuel Ratliff Lifelong Learning Center, - which also includes a fourteen hundred square foot arcade.  Galaga and Jesus, baby!  So much for that bit about kicking the money changers out of the temple.  The church's website advertises themselves as "The Church Where Christ is the Main Attraction", but perhaps they should substitute "the Big Mac" for the alleged Son of God?  If you look here, you'll see that they're also putting on a five week study of The Maker's Diet (think of it as The South Beach Diet for the religious) for their overweight members.  That study is, of course, in the JSRLLC.  I wonder if any of them hop on over to the Golden Arches for a 1200+ calorie Super Value Meal when class is over?  As noted in Tara Dooley's article in the Houston Chronicle, as reported by the Houston Press, "McDonalds... is hardly on the cutting edge of social justice issues."  [via Hedera]

Blithering Bunny

A new philosophy blog has been added to the blogroll!  Check out analytic philosopher and University of Nottingham lecturer Scott Campbell's blog: Blithering Bunny.  Campbell, demonstrating fine taste in philosophical literature, has written an encylopedia entry on David Stove.  Also see his (successful) criticism of fellow blogroll member Maverick Philosopher's attack on David Stove.  My pleasure reading for the day will consist of Stove's article "On the Intellectual Capacity of Women" which begins thus:

I BELIEVE THAT the intellectual capacity of women is on the whole inferior to that of men. By "on the whole," I do not mean just "on the average"; though I do mean that much. My belief is, if you take any degree of intellectual capacity which is above e average for the human race, as a whole, then a possessor of that degree of intellectual capacity is a good deal more likely to be man than a woman.

And, of course, there is Jenny Teichman's response, which, though I can't link directly to it, can be found in Philosophy 76(1): 149-157, 2001.  It should be a fun evening.