February 2012
9 posts
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“Is there a compelling reason to draw a connection between Lin and fortune...”
– Asian American Journalists Association, apparently in response to Ben & Jerry’s recently released Jeremy Lin ice cream, an ill-conceived dud of a flavor containing, quite predictably, fortune cookie bits.
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fuckup-to-growup asked: Hi, great blog. I read your post on discovering you had ADD and the need to take medication. I was wondering what your position was on students who take neurostimulants (who don't need them) to study? are they cheating? as a TA, would you consider this academic dishonesty?
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How Descartes found out he exists
For my Intro to Philosophy classes today, I “lectured” on Descartes’ skeptical challenge in his first two Meditations, particularly as it relates to the epistemic Closure principle. Many students wondered if Descartes’ inference from the proposition that he is thinking to the fact that he exists is legitimate. I tried to convince them that it is. In any case, this...
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Maureen Walsh argues for marriage equality
Washington state recently passed a gay marriage equality bill, making the state one step closer to being the seventh state in America to legalize gay marriage. Democratic governor Chris Gregoire has been a vocal proponent of marriage equality, and has vowed to sign the bill as soon as it gets to her desk. Whether the bill ultimately gets enshrined, however, would be contingent on there not being...
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My new obsession is...
Making handouts for my Intro to Philosophy students.
I’ve made two so far. In order of aesthetic pleasingness, i.e., reverse chronological order:
Evaluating Deductive Arguments: An Introduction to the Truth-Table Method
&
Empiricism, Rationalism, and Plato’s Innatism
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Michael Frede on Aristotle's View of Rationality...
Michael Frede is an ardent defender of a distinctive view of Aristotle’s conception of reason, one which many commentators have described as “deflationary” with respect to the role he assigns to it in ordinary human experience. A central argument that he advances in support of his view in his article, “Aristotle’s Rationalism,”[1] is an appeal to II.19 of the Posterior Analytics, which he...
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January 2012
30 posts
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Rafael Nadal's revelatory 5 hours 53 minutes
5 hours 53 minutes: that’s how long it took Rafael Nadal to concede yet another grand slam championship yesterday to Novak Djokovic.
But you wouldn’t have known Nadal lost the match if you only saw this photo, which shows him exulting on his knees after climbing back from 5-3 down in the fourth set tiebreak to win it, when right before that he had been down 3-4, 0-40 on his own...
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Even if Nadal loses
…holy shit. The man has heart. How many times did he come back from the dead today? Loved that he dropped to his knees when he won the fourth set tiebreak as if he had won the Open.
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“This final is of tremendous importance for Rafa. His mind is troubled by Nole...”
– Patrick Mouratoglou, Busted Racquet. So true. Nadal will be absolutely crushed if he gets beaten by Djokovic again. It’s gotten to that point now where it’s no longer weird to think that a guy who’s not even a year older, yet owns more than twice as many slams as his chief rival...
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Rationalism, Empiricism, and Plato’s Innatism in...
The early modern philosophers (roughly, philosophers in 17th and 18th century continental Europe) all thought that the semantic content of our thoughts is a function of the contents of our ideas. “Semantics” is the study of “meaning,” so in this context, a thought’s semantic contents are just what either a linguistic object—a word in a written sentence or a verbalized word in a particular speech...
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A meta-analysis of some common motifs...
So the prevailing byline today following Nadal’s victory over Federer yet again has been something like “You’ll never catch a fish if you don’t cast your rod.” That is to say, much of the professional blogosphere has been engaged in the enervating, and by now, long overworn, grift of downplaying Nadal’s victory, while emphasizing Federer’s stubborn...
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Nadal up two sets to one!
Rafael Nadal has taken a two sets to one lead over Roger Federer, after finally cashing in on a 6-2 tiebreak advantage in the third set. Finally I get to take my morning shower! Or maybe I shouldn’t, even though I have class in about three hours, and I like to get an early headstart? You’ll understand why I won’t, and why I might even skip class, if you ever get that feeling...
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An excerpt from Joseph M. Williams' Style: Toward...
[B]ad writing has been with us for a long time, and its roots run wide in our culture and deep into its history. These historical influences alone would challenge those of us who want to write well, but many of us also have to deal with problems of a more personal sort. Michael Crichton cited one: some of us feel compelled to use pretentious language to make ideas that we think are too simple seem...
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Rafael Nadal vs. Roger Federer: A Preview
With so many Roger Federer partisans out there in the professional tennis blogosphere predicting an easy victory for Federer over Nadal in tonight’s highly anticipated Australian Open semifinal, it was incumbent upon me to do my part to help vitiate their influence somewhat, if not in readership, then numbers-wise. (Yes, I am a Nadal partisan.)
Sure, Rafael Nadal hasn’t played ...
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Why Wozniacki won't win a grand slam soon
Caroline Wozniacki said after her defeat to Kim Clijsters last night, whereupon she was immediately assured of losing her current world number 1 ranking, that she would “get it back eventually,” and that she’s not worried that she won’t, since “in the end of the year you see who has played the best, most consistently all year round.”
That, Caroline, is why you...
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First day teaching was...awesome
Just had to record this, it being my first day and all, and it being the exact opposite of the disaster I had thought it would inevitably be.
As mentioned in my immediately preceding post, I am teaching two sections of Introduction to Philosophy this semester. My first section and I immediately hit it off, as finding out that something like half the class shared Texas roots got a very friendly...
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I'll be professing tomorrow
Tomorrow, at 10:40 and 11:45, I will be standing in front of two classrooms back-to-back and professing (from the Latin proficiscor, proficisci, profectus sum, meaning “to set forth”) in my maiden voyage out on the teaching assistant seas.
So damn nervous!
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That was for the 6 Finals in 2011
nidssserz:
In this ostensibly friendly pre-tournament shindig, Nadal goes under the belt to reclaim his turf in the Grand Slam stratosphere. Not surprising, since he has revealed himself as of late to have few qualms about using the ball as a projectile.
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“This whole business about [Newt] Gingrich going down to Occupy and saying,...”
– Warren Buffett (Source)
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“I do not think that acceptance of a scientific theory involves the belief that...”
– Ernan McMullin, “A Case for Scientific Realism,” 35-6.
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Encouraging the Right Kind of Greed Among Banks:... →
[S]ince 2000, banks, industries and consumers have been free to take on system-threatening levels of debt (to the point of financial meltdown) without facing any requirement to risk a significant amount of their own money. And while consumer risk- taking was curbed by the 2008 financial crisis, U.S. banks continue to use America’s deposits insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to...
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This makes me love Michelle Obama even more than I... →
mdevivo asked: Hi, I noticed in your info section that you were a graduate of Rutgers, N.B. which is especially interesting to me since I'm going to be transferring there next semester. My aim is to become a strong candidate for a decent graduate program in philosophy. Are there any professors that you would recommend (I know they have a renowned faculty so that may be hard to answer)? I have broad...
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Stephen Colbert must be loving this
Stephen Colbert must be loving this. Iowans are casting a serious pall of Santorum all over the GOP field right now, especially poor Mitt, who yet again is right behind a new number one.
Oh, dear Republicans. When will you finally marry Mitt?
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Presidential cuteness
Source: White House Flickr
Love the positively radiant ebullience emanating from our First Couple. It’s like they started dating just a week ago
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December 2011
12 posts
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New year's resolutions
As is customary. Here they are, in no particular order:
Finish up my second (and final) Ph.D. qualifying paper by mid-February.
Really rock TAing Intro to Philosophy while doing well in my own graduate seminars.
Quit biting my nails, period (no more lame exceptions for anxiety management).
Become less taciturn and dare to explore unfamiliar social situations and engage with professors and...
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“Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angels’
hierarchies? and...”
– Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino Elegies
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Political patronage to the hilt
Those of you who are conversant with the payroll tax cut extension debacle that has recently ensnared Capitol Hill have no doubt watched with stupefied repugnance (and partisan glee, if you’re anti-Republican) the spectacle that has just completed its long foreseen denouement: Boehner and Co. finally caved in to pressure from both within and without the GOP to pass the Senate version of the...
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Timeline
I switched to Facebook Timeline last night, and I have to say that it is pretty neat. Its most substantive change is the added privacy control options it gives users, but I also really like the “cover photo” feature (seen above next to my portrait). This is the layout that’s sticking so far, and is supposed to demonstrate my love for tennis (not as a surface against which to...
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Things I discovered this semester
That Aristotle had a distinctive vision of human experience as opposed to animal experience, in which the perception of men of experience suffices to grasp universals as a result of a mechanical exercise of reason. (I thought I knew this already, but I had to establish this for myself pace Michael Frede!)
That we have the freedom to believe. (Not unqualifiedly, of course!)
That truth is how we...
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The "female Hangover"?
You know how they say that Bridesmaids is the “female Hangover”? Well, trust me when I say that this is an unfortunate equivalence. I should know, since Bridesmaids turned out to be one of the best films I’ve seen (I’ve seen it only once, and I’m already prepared to rank it among my favorites). On the other hand, The Hangover is a movie with such puerile pretensions...