The movie "Speed" makes an effort to show that the hero (the Keanu Reeves character) is not stupid.  For instance: Throughout the movie there are several scenes in which the hero pauses, stares ahead for a moment, and then produces an accurate prediction of the villain’s next move.  Such scenes are meant to establish that…

This is old but good.  (Via CSOTD.)

This post will just be a reiteration of my previous argument in what I hope will be a clearer and more correct form. Here is how I now want to put the thing I am calling "entitlement closure": "For any propositions p and q, if I know p, and I know p=>q, then I am…

I think that natural languages are primarily supposed to be instruments of communication.  In this regard, I assume some languages are better than others; probably, some languages enable their speakers to get ideas across more quickly, clearly, and precisely than others do.  However, even if there are languages which are extremely bad at enabling their…

If modus ponens is a valid form of argument, then the proposition "If (p&(If p, then q)), then q" is true.  But this does not mean modus ponens just is that proposition.  In fact, modus ponens is not a proposition at all; it’s a rule.  Rules do two things: They entitle you to do certain…

I just watched Harry Frankfurt’s appearance on the Daily Show.  I liked the interview, but I wish I could have seen the two of them have a longer conversation.  Jon Stewart has drawn a lot of attention to himself by calling bullshit on various media personalities (e.g. in the Crossfire appearance); it seems to me…

When I was little, I was familiar with the word "beauty," but I don’t think I ever really understood what the word was supposed to mean.  Of course, I had heard people say that certain women were beautiful or not beautiful, and I think I pretty well understood what was meant in those cases.  "Beautiful,"…

It is often said that overdetermination is not or cannot be "widespread."  Whether this is true or false depends on just how common something needs to be in order to qualify as "widespread."  Nobody should deny that overdetermination of events can happen, and probably has happened.  There probably has been at least one occasion on…

As most of you probably know already, the newer conservative philosophers’ blog is here.

Enwe‘s been putting up a lot of interesting posts about the role of intuitions in philosophical practice.  Here are my two cents. I assume that an "intuition" is supposed to be a certain kind of reason to believe that some proposition is true.  Two questions: 1. What is the best way to characterize this kind…