Colin McGinn
  • Home
  • About
  • Articles
  • Blog
  • Books
  • Video
  • Contact
  • Search
  • Menu Menu

Blog

Meta-Physics

November 10, 2007/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by admin

If physics needs an interpretation, in rather the way a formal language does, if it is to be meaningful, doesn’t that show that metaphysics is indispensable? Physical knowledge can’t be all the knowledge there is, because the formulas of physics stand in need of interpretation. Are electrons continuant particulars or are they just sequences of events? […]

Read more
0 0 admin admin2007-11-10 23:49:392013-10-14 23:50:05Meta-Physics

Climate Change

October 31, 2007/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by admin

I’m about to go to Chicago for a conference on global warming and like environmental issues (part of the Chicago Festival of the Humanities). I’m appearing with Peter Singer and Chris Stone, with Dale Jamieson as chair. For me there will be some local cooling–going from Miami to Chicago. My thesis will be that the […]

Read more
0 0 admin admin2007-10-31 23:49:042013-10-14 23:49:19Climate Change

Deontological Pluralism

October 26, 2007/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by admin

I like W.D. Ross’s mixed deontology of irreducible prima facie duties, like keeping promises and repaying debts and exercising beneficence. Ross takes these duties to be self-evident and known with certainty, while he acknowledges that we can have no more than “probable opinion” about the rightness of a particular action. He also accepts that the […]

Read more
0 0 admin admin2007-10-26 23:44:342013-10-14 23:48:57Deontological Pluralism

Dispositions and Reality

October 26, 2007/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by admin

Dispositions don’t tie down meaning and reference (Quine, Kripke). Dispositions don’t tie down qualia (pace functionalism). And dispositions don’t tie down matter (Russell et al). Neither language nor mind nor matter can be explained in terms of dispositions. Dispositions are a superstructure suspended over these three realms, but not their essence. Reality is not subjunctive.

Read more
0 0 admin admin2007-10-26 23:37:522013-10-14 23:39:29Dispositions and Reality

Forehand and Backhand

October 24, 2007/0 Comments/in Sport /by admin

Lately I’ve found that as my backhand has improved my forehand has deteriorated. Now my backhand is my best shot, while in the past I struggled with it (as most players do). There seems to be what psychologists call negative transfer of training from one hand to the other. The forehand used to feel natural […]

Read more
0 0 admin admin2007-10-24 23:37:082013-10-14 23:44:30Forehand and Backhand

The Raccoon

October 19, 2007/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by admin

I’m putting a story about a raccoon and me on the site. It happened this summer, and every detail in my telling is factual–strange as some of it may sound. Make of it what you will.

Read more
0 0 admin admin2007-10-19 23:36:162013-10-14 23:36:34The Raccoon

Kant

October 19, 2007/0 Comments/in Philosophy /by admin

I’ve just been teaching Kantian ethics. The idea is that a right action is one the guiding maxim of which can be universalized without contradiction, and a wrong action is one that cannot be so universalized. So it is wrong to break your promises because if everyone did so there would be no institution of […]

Read more
0 0 admin admin2007-10-19 23:35:132013-10-14 23:35:43Kant

Ball Machines

October 19, 2007/0 Comments/in Sport /by admin

Last weekend I for the first time played tennis against a ball machine. It was quite an experience. I hit balls by myself on the court for a full three hours, working on my technique (half volley backhands, down the line side to side forehands). I’m sure I improved my game considerably. Then I played […]

Read more
0 0 admin admin2007-10-19 23:33:192013-10-14 23:34:15Ball Machines

Mastic Beach, Long Island

October 19, 2007/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by admin

The first thing that confronted us on our return to Long Island, after eleven months away, was a rat in the sofa. More precisely, the nest, remnants, and droppings of what was most likely a rat (the squirrel hypothesis had a moment in the sun). The rat had obviously come into the house during the […]

Read more
0 0 admin admin2007-10-19 23:32:362013-10-14 23:32:49Mastic Beach, Long Island

Alien Matter

September 28, 2007/1 Comment/in Philosophy /by admin

How alien is objective physical reality compared (a) to its perceptual appearance and (b) to our own consciousness? As to (a), it seems to lack secondary qualities like color; in which case, what makes it capabable of occupying space? As to (b), unless we go in for panpsychism it seems very remote from the nature […]

Read more
0 0 admin admin2007-09-28 23:30:042013-10-14 23:32:04Alien Matter
Page 109 of 110«‹107108109110›

Categories

  • Meaning
  • Mind
  • Philosophy
  • Science
  • Skepticism
  • Sport
  • Uncategorized

Archives

  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • June 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • September 2009
  • May 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007

© 2023 Copyright - Colin Mcginn
Share
a BOLDER DESIGN
Scroll to top