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Paul Austin Murphy’s Essays on Philosophy
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In 1931, the Philosopher G.F. Stout Hinted at Panpsychism
In 1931, the Philosopher G.F. Stout Hinted at Panpsychism
George Frederick Stout (1860–1944) was an English philosopher and psychologist.
Paul Austin Murphy
May 17
Speaking of Something: On a Causal Theory of Reference
Speaking of Something: On a Causal Theory of Reference
This essay is mainly about Keith Donnellan’s paper ‘Speaking of Nothing’, and its defence of a causal theory of reference.
Paul Austin Murphy
May 4
Why Do People See Three Columns, Rather Than Four Rows?
Why Do People See Three Columns, Rather Than Four Rows?
The conceptual nature of experience (as derived from sensations) is supposedly shown by an example from the philosopher Christopher…
Paul Austin Murphy
Apr 30
Do People Really Write (or Read) and Listen to Music at the Same Time?
Do People Really Write (or Read) and Listen to Music at the Same Time?
“Another benefit of listening to music while reading is that music can help you retain information. This is because listening to music can…
Paul Austin Murphy
Apr 18
When It Comes to Science, Non-Scientists Rely on Testimony
When It Comes to Science, Non-Scientists Rely on Testimony
(i) Introduction (ii) Scientific Testimony (iii) Wikipedia on the Philosophy of Testimony (iv) Wittgenstein on Doubting All Testimony (v)…
Paul Austin Murphy
Apr 15
Sexy Popular Science: The Multiverse, Many Worlds, and Quantum Stuff
Sexy Popular Science: The Multiverse, Many Worlds, and Quantum Stuff
“Unsurprisingly, pop culture gets the multiverse wrong.”
Paul Austin Murphy
Apr 11
Physicist Peter Woit on the Sociology of String Theory
Physicist Peter Woit on the Sociology of String Theory
The following piece is on Peter Woit’s strong stance against string theory. It focusses on Woit’s sociological analysis of string theory…
Paul Austin Murphy
Apr 7
Why Study Philosophy If It’s Already Dead?
Why Study Philosophy If It’s Already Dead?
The American writer Joyce Carol Oates offers her ‘Followers’ (on X) the words in the screenshot below. They seem to be a variation on…
Paul Austin Murphy
Apr 4
Naturalism Is a Religion, According to a Christian Apologist (2)
Naturalism Is a Religion, According to a Christian Apologist (2)
This is a follow-up to my last essay, ‘Naturalism, According to a Christian Apologist (1)’. This was on the article ‘What is Naturalism?’…
Paul Austin Murphy
Mar 30
Naturalism, According to a Christian Apologist (1)
Naturalism, According to a Christian Apologist (1)
The words “Christian Apologist” are used in the title above because the passages quoted within the following essay come from the website…
Paul Austin Murphy
Mar 27
Why Heidegger, the Nazis and Religious People Wanted to “Transcend Rationality”
Why Heidegger, the Nazis and Religious People Wanted to “Transcend Rationality”
The title of this essay could just as easily have included the words “poststructuralists” and “postmodernists”. However, it would have been…
Paul Austin Murphy
Mar 23
Judith Butler’s Pretentious and Obscurantist Writing Style
Judith Butler’s Pretentious and Obscurantist Writing Style
(i) Introduction (ii) Judith Butler and Jacques Derrida (iii) Julian Baggini on Jacques Derrida’s Writing Style (iv) Cathy Birkenstein on…
Paul Austin Murphy
Mar 19
Two Contemporary Wittgensteinians Fight Against Scientism in Philosophy
Two Contemporary Wittgensteinians Fight Against Scientism in Philosophy
The British philosophers P.M.S. Hacker (Peter Hacker) and Paul Horwich speak out against scientism in contemporary analytic philosophy.
Paul Austin Murphy
Mar 18
Two Worshippers of Wittgenstein: Paul Horwich and Peter Hacker
Two Worshippers of Wittgenstein: Paul Horwich and Peter Hacker
[See my next essay, ‘Two Contemporary Wittgensteinians Fight Against Scientism in Philosophy’.]
Paul Austin Murphy
Mar 15
Margaret Boden on Qualia and Artificial Intelligence
Margaret Boden on Qualia and Artificial Intelligence
(i) Introduction (ii) Paul Churchland on Qualia (iii) Colin McGinn and David Chalmers on Qualia (iv) Aaron Sloman on Qualia (v) Are Qualia…
Paul Austin Murphy
Mar 10
Margaret Boden on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Consciousness
Margaret Boden on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Consciousness
The following essay is a commentary on — and reaction to — Margaret Boden’s book AI: Its Nature and Future. In this book Boden discusses…
Paul Austin Murphy
Mar 6
Does ‘Wigner’s Friend’ Support Consciousness-First Physics?
Does ‘Wigner’s Friend’ Support Consciousness-First Physics?
Schrödinger’s cat is a reductio ad absurdum. So too is Wigner’s friend. Both are related examples of thought experiments which were (as it…
Paul Austin Murphy
Mar 2
Why Care About the Contexts of People’s Ideas and Beliefs When Doing Philosophy?
Why Care About the Contexts of People’s Ideas and Beliefs When Doing Philosophy?
(i) Introduction (ii) Two Cases: Immanuel Kant and Philip Goff (iii) Too Much Context? (iv) The Objectivity of a Free Market Think Tank (v)…
Paul Austin Murphy
Feb 28
Nothing is Something: Some Heavy Philosophy
Nothing is Something: Some Heavy Philosophy
(i) Introduction (ii) The Grammar of the Word “Nothing” (iii) The History of Nothing (iv) Parmenides on Nothing (v) Russell and Quine on…
Paul Austin Murphy
Feb 24
Albert Einstein as Serial Killer and Misogynist: One Context of Discovery
Albert Einstein as Serial Killer and Misogynist: One Context of Discovery
(i) Introduction (ii) Sokal’s Sex Life and Kripke’s Schooldays (iii) Robert P. Crease on the Envy, Rivalry and Anger of Scientists (iv)…
Paul Austin Murphy
Feb 18
Eugene Wigner’s ‘Remarks on the Mind-Body Question’: Idealism, Materialism, Consciousness
Eugene Wigner’s ‘Remarks on the Mind-Body Question’: Idealism, Materialism, Consciousness
This essay is mainly about Eugene Wigner’s position on the wave function and its relation to what he called “sensations” and “impressions”…
Paul Austin Murphy
Feb 12
Idealism, Mysticism and the Observer Effect
Idealism, Mysticism and the Observer Effect
“Browse through any bookshop’s new-age section [] and you’ll find wild claims confidently asserted about the uncertainty principle [or…
Paul Austin Murphy
Feb 9
Dear David Chalmers, Is it logically possible that logical possibilities mislead us?…
Dear David Chalmers, Is it logically possible that logical possibilities mislead us?…
And also waste our time? More accurately, is it logically possible that a fixation on logical possibilities could mislead us and/or waste…
Paul Austin Murphy
Feb 1
The Sociology and History of Qualia
The Sociology and History of Qualia
In an earlier essay (called ‘Consciousness & Qualia: Who Cares About ‘How They Seem To Us’?’) I discussed Philip Goff’s words…
Paul Austin Murphy
Jan 27
Abusive and Tribal Responses to My Essay on Bernardo Kastrup
Abusive and Tribal Responses to My Essay on Bernardo Kastrup
The word “tribal” is used in the title above partly because many self-described “spiritual” people themselves have used the word “tribe”…
Paul Austin Murphy
Jan 24
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