Even though the world is governed by laws, human beings are able to be free. In fact, there is no difference between being genuinely free and having a distinctively human psychological architecture. But self-deception and rationalization can result in the replacement of actual beliefs with operational pseudo-beliefs. When this happens, the result is a sociopathic pseudo-person. The difference between a sociopath and a psychopath is that, whereas the sociopath once had a distinctively human psychological architecture, the psychopath never developed such an architecture to begin with. Thus, whereas the sociopath's personality is that of an ossified human, the psychopath has no real personality to speak of. What the psychopath lacks in the way of an actual identity, he replaces with narratives, the primary function of which is to give a semblance of cohesiveness to his otherwise gelatinous psyche, and a secondary function of which is to defraud others. But the psychopath's tendency to defraud others is merely a way of providing external reinforcement for his flimsy narrative-based faux-identity.
In this briskly written volume, a case is made that a value is a belief as to how one live one's life if one's psychological architecture is to retain its integrity, and a case is thereby made that intention is an operationalized value. This analysis makes it possible to distinguish between minds that do and minds that do not host selves. (Selves are minds that have values; minds that are not selves do not.) The relationship between weakness of the will and self-deception is made clear, and it is explained how it is that one can knowingly act in self-destructive ways.
The key precepts of modern epistemology explained both rigorously and approachable. There are nine tests and a full-length final exam, complete with answer keys and explanations.
The truly important parts of economics without the usual fluff. Each point is followed by a brief multiple-choice quiz, ensuring that knowledge is sealed in.
Giving people straight welfare would actually shrink the state, since, when welfare is taken away from people who need it, fake jobs have to be manufactured for those same people. Probation officer jobs and intake coordinator jobs have to be 'dummied up' as a way of funneling still-needed welfare dollars to them.
Technology destroys more jobs than it creates, and this is doubly true of AI. Everybody knows it, and we try to fight it by creating fake public sector jobs. The economy will grind to a halt, thanks to resulting bureaucratic bloat. So, it's time to admit that we need universal welfare. It's time to stop wasting our lives at fake dead-end jobs. Let's get out of the way of the few people who are actually making the economy work.
This work puts forth two answers to the question: In what ways are Jesus and Socrates similar? One of these answers is put forth by a Christian and embodies a deeply Christian perspective, and the other is put forth by two non-Christians, working jointly, and embodies a decidedly secular perspective. The question was first raised by the Christian author.
Kant's system is stated, analyzed, and duly reconstructed. On this basis, cogent analyses of induction, causation, and scientific method are put forth.
Introduction
Part 1. The Cogency of Kant's Transcendental Arguments
The ambiguity of the word "concept"
"Synthetic" and "a priori" defined
Kant's conception of a priority and analyticity
Kant's conception of non-analyticity
Kant on the role of paraperceptual ideation in analytical thought
Transcendental?Analyticity-based
Kant's crypto-empiricism
Arithmetic not a priori
Transcendentalism=Psychologism
Kant's rearguard empiricism
Why Kant's positions are nonetheless correct
A priori knowledge a prerequisite for a posteriori knowledge
Kant on Hume on Causation
Part 2. The Analogue-Digital Distinction and the Strictly Logical Basis of Induction and Causal
Explanation
The concept of instantaneousness
Hume's position doubly erroneous
The analogue-digital distinction
The existence of necessary connections of the non-instantaneousness of all spatiotemporal
existence
Temporal order to be understood in terms of causation, not vice versa
The spuriousness of Hume's argument for spontaneous creation
Summary of sections I-VI.
Induction an operation on analogue-content
Perceptual content not digitizable
The spuriousness of Hume's argument for the legitimacy of counterpredictive inductions
The grounds of inductive inference vs. linguistic representations of such grounds
Hume's associationism false with respect to our theories, true only with respect to Hume's
theories about our theories
Some Consequences of our System
The non-probativeness of some of the standard arguments for skepticism
The Kantian roots of this system
These points in relation to the nature of probability
Whitehead and Russell on spatiotemporal order
The crypto-conversativism of epistemic relativism
Chomsky's epistemic conservativism
Ontogenetic a posteriori ? phylogenetic a priori
Chomsky's rationalism actually an extreme form of empiricism
The unconscious
Pithy, easy-to-understand papers on Plato's epistemology, metaphysics, and political philosophy.
Table of contents:
'Why was Socrates executed?'
'The Meaning of Plato's Cave Allegory'
'A One Page Proof of Plato's Theory of Forms'
'Plato's Republic as Pol Potist Bureaucracy'
'The Sociology of Epistemology: The Epistemological Views of Plato and Descartes'
'The Negative Relevance of What Philosophers, especially Plato, Have to Say about Politics'
