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Endorsement by Dr Robert Lawrence Kuhn, Closer to Truth
Closer To Truth Robert Lawrence Kuhn May 25, 2020 To Whom It May Concern: It is a pleasure to provide our wholehearted endorsement of the ZerOrigIndia project and to offer Closer To Truth’s public outreach and promotional resources to support the vital research and understanding of “Zero” as it will no doubt emerge from the ZerOrigIndia project. The concept of Zero is both a critical event in intellectual history and a milestone in the development of mathematics, science and technology. The exploration of zero’s origin, culturally and linguistically as well as mathematically and philosophically, could elicit novel ideas and new ways of thinking. Moreover, the broader philosophical significance of Zero reveals transcendental ideas of Nothing, Emptiness, Void, Blank as features of reality to be apprehended and appreciated and perhaps applied to entirely new categories of thought. Indeed, “Nothing” is a prime Closer To Truth theme. The outstanding group of scholars and thinkers devoted to ZerOrigIndia should encourage our support. Closer To Truth will publish and promote relevant research from the ZerOrigIndia project. As background, Closer To Truth (CTT), featuring world-renown scientists and philosophers, is the definitive PBS/public television series and web archive on Cosmos (cosmology/physics/mathematics, philosophy of science), Consciousness (brain/mind, philosophy of mind) and Meaning/God (theism/atheism/agnosticism, philosophy of religion, critical thinking). The Closer To Truth YouTube channel, offering high intellectual content, is running at >1 million views and >11 million minutes watched per month; >125,000 subscribers; >60% outside the US. You may use my endorsement to support the ZerOrigIndia project in any way deemed appropriate. -
Events and the Nature of Time: Seth Lloyd Source URL
Events and the Nature of Time: Seth Lloyd Source URL: https://www.closertotruth.com/interviews/55447 Transcript - Long Robert Lawrence Kuhn: Seth, we're both at this – start again. Seth, we're both at this FQXi Conference in Banff, this beautiful area, um, about the physics of events, the importance of events and understanding what physics is, and one of the topics that we're looking at is the nature of time and how events can help us understand what time really is. How – how does that work? How can events help us understand what time is? Seth Lloyd: Well, now, that is something that unfolds in time, like a clock ticking or a – an electron moving from here to there, or a bit flipping in a computer. Or, you know, just our thoughts moving on and our conversation progressing. Um, now time is a mysterious thing and we don't understand it well. Heraclitus said that time is like a river, like this beautiful river here [clears throat], the water flowing and then time ever moving onward and, um – ah, but what makes us feel and perceive that time is going? Um, so, ah – the first answer is I don't know. Robert Lawrence Kuhn: Almost every question is the same. [Laughter.] Seth Lloyd: Yeah, um, but – but there are, ah, different eras of time. There's a perceptual era of time where we don't know something and then we know – know something that we didn't know. This is about getting information. Um, there's a – a conversation, talking back and forth, interacting, where – where you tell me some information, I get the information. -
Why This Universe? Toward a Taxonomy of Possible Explanations
28 viewing cosmologists, physicists, philosophers, and theologians, asking them, among other ques- Why This tions, “Why This Universe?” From their many answers, and from my own night musings, I have constructed a taxonomy5 that I present here as a heuristic to help get our minds around this Universe? ultimate and perennial question. The Problem to be Solved Toward a Taxonomy In recent years, the search for scientific explana- tions of reality has been energized by increasing of Possible Explanations recognition that the laws of physics and the con- stants that are embedded in these laws all seem ROBERT LAWRENCE KUHN exquisitely “fine tuned” to allow, or to enable, the WHEN I WAS 12, IN THE SUMMER BETWEEN existence of stars and planets and the emergence seventh and eighth grades, a sudden realization of life and mind. If the laws of physics had much struck such fright that I strove desperately to blot differed, if the values of their constants had much it out, to eradicate the disruptive idea as if it changed, or if the initial conditions of the uni- were a lethal mind virus. My body shuddered verse had much varied, what we know to exist with dread; an abyss had yawned open. Five would not exist since all things of size and sub- decades later I feel its frigid blast still. stance would not have formed. Stephen Hawking Why not Nothing? 1 What if everything had presented the problem this way: always been Nothing? Not just emptiness, not just Why is the universe so close to the dividing line blankness, and not just emptiness and blankness between collapsing again and expanding indefinitely? forever, but not even the existence of emptiness, In order to be as close as we are now, the rate of not even the meaning of blankness, and no forev- expansion early on had to be chosen fantastically er. -
© 2017 Luis H. Favela, Ph.D. 1 University of Central Florida PHI
1 University of Central Florida PHI 3320: Philosophy of Mind Fall 2017, Syllabus, v. 08222017 Course Information ¨ Title: Philosophy of Mind ¨ Course number: PHI 3320 ¨ Credit hours: 3.0 ¨ Term: Fall semester 2017 ¨ Mode: Web Instructor Information ¨ Name: Luis Favela, Ph.D. (Please refer to me as “Dr. Favela” or “Professor Favela.”) ¨ Email: [email protected] ¨ Website: http://philosophy.cah.ucf.edu/staff.php?id=1017 ¨ Office location: PSY 0245 ¨ Office hours: Tuesday and Thursday 1:30 – 3:00 pm Course Description ¨ Catalogue description: Recent and contemporary attempts to understand the relation of mind to body, the relation of consciousness to personhood, and the relation of psychology to neurobiology. ¨ Detailed description: This course introduces some of the main arguments, concepts, and theories in the philosophy of mind. Some of the questions addressed in the philosophy of mind include: “What are minds made of,” “How does the mind relate to the brain,” and “what is consciousness?” Answers to these questions have consequences for a wide range of other disciplines, including computer science, ethics, neuroscience, and theology. The first part of the course covers the main philosophical views concerning mind, such as dualism, behaviorism, identity theory, functionalism, and eliminativism. The second part of the course focuses on consciousness, and questions such as: “Does ‘consciousness’ exist,” “Is consciousness physical,” and “Can there be a science of consciousness?” Student Learning Outcomes ¨ Students will be able to describe the main philosophical views concerning the mind. § Students will be able to reconstruct the arguments underlying the main philosophical views concerning the mind. § Students will be able to articulate their positions concerning whether or not they agree with the conclusions of the arguments behind the main philosophical views concerning the mind. -
Atheism's Best Arguments? (Part 1): David Bentley Hart Source URL
Atheism's Best Arguments? (Part 1): David Bentley Hart Source URL: https://www.closertotruth.com/interviews/57486 Transcript - Long Robert Lawrence Kuhn: David, you believe in God and argue for God's existence. Part of that is attacking those who would deny God's existence, atheists. So, when you hear atheistic arguments, what are your reactions to them? David Bentley Hart: It depends on how good they are. In recent years, we've seen a little cottage industry spring up in marketing very bad arguments for atheism, so, then my reaction is ill-concealed scorn, right? Robert Lawrence Kuhn: Let's just differentiate. Let's start with the bad arguments. What are some of those? David Bentley Hart: I mean, the sort of arguments you would find in Richard Dawkins in which he clearly misunderstands claims about ontological contingency and thinks you can conjure them away by having this efficiently comprehensive cosmology, or when he says something like, evolution answers the question of existence, that's actually something he says. I mean, you realize there that you're dealing with category errors so profound that they verge on the infinite. So, those are bad arguments. And in general, my list of fine atheist philosophers in the 20th Century is a small one. Mackey would probably be it, really. Sobel, in the English-speaking world. I think there was a greater age of atheism in the 19th Century. Profounder arguments, simply because they were based on a deeper knowledge of what they were attacking. Nietzsche. Nietzsche understood Christianity. Not every aspect of it. -
Madness, Reason, and Truth: an Examination of Two Philosophical Debates
W&M ScholarWorks Undergraduate Honors Theses Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 7-2012 Madness, Reason, and Truth: An Examination of Two Philosophical Debates Catherine Leigh Robey College of William and Mary Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses Part of the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Robey, Catherine Leigh, "Madness, Reason, and Truth: An Examination of Two Philosophical Debates" (2012). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 534. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/534 This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Undergraduate Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Madness, Reason, and Truth: An Examination of Two Philosophical Debates A thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirement for an award of honors in the department of Religious Studies from The College of William and Mary by Catherine Leigh Robey Williamsburg, VA May 3, 2012 Table of Contents I. INTRODUCTION 5 II. HEGEL, PLATO, AND KIERKEGAARD: AN ANALYSIS OF THE SUBJECTIVITY OF AN OBJECTIVE PHENOMENON 8 INTRODUCTION 8 HEGEL – THREE MAIN FORMS OF MADNESS 9 “IDIOCY” 9 “MADNESS PROPER” 11 “MANIA OR FRENZY” 12 HEGEL – REASON, UNIVERSALITY, OBJECTIVITY, AND THE DOCTRINE OF MEDIATION 13 PLATO AND “DIVINE MADNESS” 16 “MADNESS OF PROPHECY” 17 “MADNESS OF THE MYSTIC” 18 “MADNESS -
A Beautiful Theory: the Relationship Between Beauty and Scientific Truth
Ives 1 A Beautiful Theory: the Relationship between Beauty and Scientific Truth Brilliant shades of reds, oranges, and yellows swirl together, emanating from an intense spherical center and slowly fading through pink and purple to dark blue at the edges. The sight is breathtaking, romantic, and beautiful. There is something unmistakably powerful about a sunset; something that makes people stop and contemplate, snap a photograph, or reach for a lover’s hand. Now, imagine that same sunset gracing the sky above stinking, rotting piles of garbage. The image changes, doesn’t it? The scene is suddenly imperfect, causing a twist of the stomach instead of a satisfied sigh. The beauty of the sunset contrasts sharply with the aesthetically unpleasing garbage leaving a feeling that something is “wrong.” The idea that beauty is “right” and “true” has been around since human kind developed abstract thought. The Latin phrase Pulchritudo splendor varitatis (“beauty is the splendor of truth”) is thousands of years old, and suggests that beauty and truth are interrelated. Certainly it seems appropriate that something beautiful would be true, but it is more realistic to think that something hideous could also be true. Is beauty a valid criterion for truth? What is the relationship between beauty and truth? Indeed, what are beauty and truth? None of these questions has a simple, self-evident answer and each will probably be debated until the end of life itself. In the pages that follow I will offer my own perspective on the nature and interrelatedness of beauty and truth. The unavoidable first step in contemplating the nature of beauty and truth is to define the indefinable. -
Undefeated Dualism
Philos Stud DOI 10.1007/s11098-012-9962-z Undefeated dualism Tomas Bogardus Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012 Abstract In the standard thought experiments, dualism strikes many philosophers as true, including many non-dualists. This ‘striking’ generates prima facie justifi- cation: in the absence of defeaters, we ought to believe that things are as they seem to be, i.e. we ought to be dualists. In this paper, I examine several proposed undercutting defeaters for our dualist intuitions. I argue that each proposal fails, since each rests on a false assumption, or requires empirical evidence that it lacks, or overgenerates defeaters. By the end, our prima facie justification for dualism remains undefeated. I close with one objection concerning the dialectical role of rebutting defeaters, and I argue that the prospects for a successful rebutting defeater for our dualist intuitions are dim. Since dualism emerges undefeated, we ought to believe it. Keywords Dualism Á Intuition Á Phenomenal conservatism Á Defeaters Á Mind–body problem Á Phenomenal concepts Á Explanatory gap Á Physicalism Á Materialism Á Reduction 1 Dualist intuitions Many philosophers believe that for any mental state type M, there exists some type T, such that T is a naturalistically-acceptable reductive state type, and M is identical with T. Let’s call those philosophers non-dualists. It’s difficult to say precisely what would count as a ‘‘naturalistically-acceptable reductive state type,’’ in no small part because it’s difficult to say just what naturalism is and what it would accept. But T. Bogardus (&) University of St. -
Theology and Religious Studies
Impact case study (REF3b) Institution: Heythrop College, University of London Unit of Assessment: Theology and Religious Studies Title of case study: The Rationality of Religious And Other Belief Systems 1. Summary of the impact Stephen Law’s research since 2004 focuses on the structure and rationality of Christian theism, atheism/naturalism, supernaturalism and other related belief systems. His findings have been disseminated very widely. It is no exaggeration to say that Law’s work in this area is among the most frequently discussed and cited – in both electronic and print media – in the world. His work has led to a deeper and more widespread public understanding of the arguments for and against the existence of God and the historicity of Jesus, greater public awareness of issues concerning the rationality and structure of religious and other belief systems, and also a deepened public understanding of issues concerning if and how critical thinking, philosophy and religion should be taught in schools. 2. Underpinning research Law's underpinning research explores what might loosely be called ‘unreasonable belief’. He focuses particularly, though not exclusively, on the rationality of (i) atheism/naturalism, (ii) traditional monotheism and (iii) a range of other religious and non-religious beliefs, including belief in the existence and miracles of Jesus, Young Earth Creationism and Christian Science. Law examines the intellectual strategies people employ to defend and support beliefs to which they are often powerfully drawn but which may, in reality, be unreasonably held. He has mapped and investigated a number of strategies that he suggests recur across, and play a pivotal role in sustaining, many irrational systems of belief. -
Introduction
CHAPTER ONE Introduction inquiry, iT is said, aims at the truth. Yet it’s doubtful there is any such thing as the truth. So it might be better to say that inquiry aims at truths, and better still to say that different inquiries from archeology to zoology aim at different truths from archeologi- cal to zoological. Such inquiries have had many successes, but in many cases inquiries are still underway, and success has not yet been achieved. Thus some truths are known, others unknown. But what, if anything, do the different truths, known and un- known, about different topics have in common, to make them all truths? If we knew the answer to this question we’d at least have a better understanding of the nature of inquiry, and perhaps even a better chance of finding what we’re looking for when we inquire. But with so many kinds of truths, the project of coming up with a unified conception of what truths are might seem hopeless. Per- haps that is why other inquiries leave it to philosophy. This little book is about recent philosophical inquiries into what it is for a thing to be true. There are other philosophical questions about truth—Is truth of value in itself or only as a means to other ends? How much sense can be made of the idea of one untruth’s being closer to truth than another?—but there are so many such questions that it would take a book longer than this even just to introduce them all. The question on which we focus—“What is it for a thing to be true?”—has a certain priority simply because some sort of answer to it has to be presupposed by any serious attempt to answer almost any of the others. -
Die Phantasie Gottes: an Analysis of the Divine Ideas in Deity Theories & Brian Leftow, with a Proposed Synthesis
LIBERTY UNIVERSITY DIE PHANTASIE GOTTES: AN ANALYSIS OF THE DIVINE IDEAS IN DEITY THEORIES & BRIAN LEFTOW, WITH A PROPOSED SYNTHESIS MASTER’S THESIS PRESENTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT FOR THE MASTER OF ARTS IN PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES BY NATHAN AUSTIN DOWELL The poet's eye, in fine frenzy rolling, Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven; And as imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name. - Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, 5.1.12-17. 1 Acknowledgments I would like to thank Brian Leftow first of all. The chances of him ever becoming aware of anything here are very small but I have to acknowledge him, nonetheless. From everything I have read and seen in lectures, he appears to be a brilliant, original and thorough thinker. His intellectual rigor, humility and passion for God and His supremacy in all things make him a preeminent Christian philosopher for a philosophy student like myself to strive to imitate in my work. It is unfortunate that tone can be lost in writing so I ask the reader to subliminally preface all my critical remarks of his work with a sincere “with all due respect.” I owe a great debt here to Leibniz, Kant, and Spinoza, three prolific German thinkers in whose honor I made the title for this thesis. They both set me on this path (Leibniz) and caused me to change directions while on it (Kant and Spinoza). Some personal friends and family: my dad for his passion for Christ and doing his best to impart that to me; my brothers Joseph and David for their support and insight in conversations on these issues; Scott Panida, one of the most encouraging and inquisitive men I know; Brendan Hegarty for thoughtful conversations; Jonathan Wells, Joseph Gibson, Matt Nevius, Will Green, Shaun Smith and Canaan Suitt, who not only all spoke with me about and/or read over sections of this paper but who also made my time in the M.A.P.S. -
First Century Quantum Fiction
Shapes of Time in British Twenty- First Century Quantum Fiction Shapes of Time in British Twenty- First Century Quantum Fiction By Sonia Front Shapes of Time in British Twenty-First Century Quantum Fiction By Sonia Front This book first published 2015 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2015 by Sonia Front All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Reviewed by Prof. Elana Gomel, University of Tel Aviv, Israel Parts of Introduction have been previously published as “Temporality in British Quantum Fiction: An Overview,” in ‘Hours like bright sweets in a jar’ – Time and Temporality in Literature and Culture, ed. Alicja Bemben and Sonia Front (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014), 23-44. ISBN (10): 1-4438-8029-9 ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-8029-9 TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface ....................................................................................................... vii Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 The Shifting Shapes of Time Shape One: Tree ........................................................................................ 37 Parallel