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Paul Austin Murphy’s Essays on Philosophy
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Do Mysterians Believe That Science Will Leave the Mysteries Unexplained… Forever?
Do Mysterians Believe That Science Will Leave the Mysteries Unexplained… Forever?
It’s helpful to distinguish two types of mysterian: (1) Those who both yearn for, and depend upon, mysteries. (2) Those who discover what…
Paul Austin Murphy
Aug 17
Gödel’s Logical Proof of God’s Existence Depends on Religious Assumptions
Gödel’s Logical Proof of God’s Existence Depends on Religious Assumptions
Kurt Gödel’s proof of God’s existence may well work logically. Indeed, it may even be logically flawless. However, it doesn’t actually…
Paul Austin Murphy
Aug 14
Stephen Hawking on Everything From Nothing… What?!
Stephen Hawking on Everything From Nothing… What?!
In the book The Grand Design (2010), Stephen Hawking wrote a passage which has been quoted and memed many times. In it, there’s this line…
Paul Austin Murphy
Aug 7
Are Kurt Gödel’s Theorems Overstretched, Overused, and Overplayed?
Are Kurt Gödel’s Theorems Overstretched, Overused, and Overplayed?
In this instance, the philosopher J.R. Lucas relied heavily on Kurt Gödel's first incompleteness theorem to advance his position against…
Paul Austin Murphy
Aug 3
Virtual Realities Are Real Fakes: Chalmers and Baudrillard on Reality
Virtual Realities Are Real Fakes: Chalmers and Baudrillard on Reality
Some 40 years ago, Jean Baudrillard rejected the distinction between “reality” and the “simulacrum”. (He stated: “The simulacrum is true.”)…
Paul Austin Murphy
Aug 2
The Gödelian Argument Against Machine Minds Relies On Skilled Metamathematicians Seeing…
The Gödelian Argument Against Machine Minds Relies On Skilled Metamathematicians Seeing…
Did the philosopher J.R. Lucas and the mathematical physicist Roger Penrose rely on the rare abilities of a very-small set of…
Paul Austin Murphy
Jul 31
Dennett Quines Qualia: A Bitter Taste Is Not a Quale
Dennett Quines Qualia: A Bitter Taste Is Not a Quale
What is it for a lemon to be “objectively bitter”? According to the philosopher Daniel Dennett (who died in April), it’s “to produce a…
Paul Austin Murphy
Jul 27
Carlo Rovelli on Aristotle: Objects and Their Relations
Carlo Rovelli on Aristotle: Objects and Their Relations
(i) Introduction (ii) Aristotle: Substance and Essence (iii) Rovelli on Nāgārjuna and Western Philosophy (iv) Carlo Rovelli’s Relationalism
Paul Austin Murphy
Jul 18
Are Panpsychism and String Theory Unscientific or Non-Scientific?
Are Panpsychism and String Theory Unscientific or Non-Scientific?
“We must distinguish between being non-scientific and being unscientific. [] philosophy [perhaps panpsychism and/or string theory] is a…
Paul Austin Murphy
Jul 16
William James on Truth… According to Richard Rorty
William James on Truth… According to Richard Rorty
Many 20th century philosophers set themselves the task of defining (or redefining) the words “true” and “truth”. They wanted to see how…
Paul Austin Murphy
Jul 11
Explaining Qualia?
Explaining Qualia?
“The problem of explaining these phenomenal qualities is just the problem of explaining consciousness. This is the really hard part of the…
Paul Austin Murphy
Jul 10
Downward Causation at the Level of the Mental… and Election Results?
Downward Causation at the Level of the Mental… and Election Results?
“Events at higher levels — levels where emergent properties become evident — can in turn feed back and affect events at lower levels. For…
Paul Austin Murphy
Jul 9
Relationalism/Relationism and its Violent Hierarchy: Relations vs Things
Relationalism/Relationism and its Violent Hierarchy: Relations vs Things
[The word “things” is used to refer to objects, entities, particulars, individuals, etc.]
Paul Austin Murphy
Jul 3
Wittgenstein on Why the Liar Paradox Belongs to a Language Game
Wittgenstein on Why the Liar Paradox Belongs to a Language Game
(i) Introduction (ii) On the Liar Paradox as a Language Game (iii) The Liar Paradox Was Created, Not Found
Paul Austin Murphy
Jul 1
Physics and the Philosophy of Intrinsic Properties
Physics and the Philosophy of Intrinsic Properties
(i) Introduction (ii) David Lewis on Intrinsic Properties (iii) Philip Goff on Intrinsic Nature (iv) Did Bertrand Russell Reject Intrinsic…
Paul Austin Murphy
Jun 30
Did Daniel Dennett Believe that Qualia Are Real?
Did Daniel Dennett Believe that Qualia Are Real?
According to Owen Flanagan, Daniel Dennett happily accepted that there is a way things seem to us. However, is that the same thing as…
Paul Austin Murphy
Jun 28
A Deflationary View of Information in Physics
A Deflationary View of Information in Physics
This essay tackles the notion of information as it’s used by physicists.
Paul Austin Murphy
Jun 26
Bertrand Russell: “The only way to find out what philosophy is, is to do philosophy.”
Bertrand Russell: “The only way to find out what philosophy is, is to do philosophy.”
The English philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) believed that when it comes to definitions of the word ‘philosophy’ (as well as to…
Paul Austin Murphy
Jun 25
A Naturalist Account of Phenomenology: Qualia and How Things Seem To Us
A Naturalist Account of Phenomenology: Qualia and How Things Seem To Us
This essay is about Owen Flanagan’s naturalist account of phenomenology. More specifically, it tackles various phenomenological accounts of…
Paul Austin Murphy
Jun 24
On Consciousness and Intelligence: Is It Mainly About Definitions?
On Consciousness and Intelligence: Is It Mainly About Definitions?
This essay is on the importance — and relevance — of definitions when it comes to debates about consciousness and intelligence. (As mainly…
Paul Austin Murphy
Jun 19
Carlo Rovelli on the Religious Critics of Science
Carlo Rovelli on the Religious Critics of Science
The theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli writes: “The world is full of people who say that they have The Truth. [] There is always someone…
Paul Austin Murphy
Jun 16
Anil Seth: Intelligence ≠ Consciousness ≠ Intelligence
Anil Seth: Intelligence ≠ Consciousness ≠ Intelligence
The critics of both panpsychism and integrated information theory (IIT) rely on an implicit— although sometimes explicit — strong…
Paul Austin Murphy
Jun 10
Neuroscientist Anil Seth Links Panpsychism To Integrated Information Theory
Neuroscientist Anil Seth Links Panpsychism To Integrated Information Theory
(i) Introduction (ii) Integrated Information Theory and Panpsychism (iii) David Chalmers on Conscious Thermostats (iv) Is Information…
Paul Austin Murphy
Jun 2
Anil Seth: Consciousness ≠ Integrated Information
Anil Seth: Consciousness ≠ Integrated Information
Integrated information theorists postulate a literal identity between consciousness and integrated information. The British neuroscientist…
Paul Austin Murphy
May 29
Rudolf Carnap: Truth Is Relative to Convention
Rudolf Carnap: Truth Is Relative to Convention
“The conditions of the truth of sentences in a system need not be found outside the system [or convention], but must be provided within…
Paul Austin Murphy
May 24
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