Philosophy – Page 3 – William M. Briggs

Our Base Metaphors & Analogies Used In Science Have Outlived Their Usefulness: Part I

Metaphors and analogies exhaust themselves. No matter how useful they are as guides to thought, pushed too far they can loosen our grip on Reality or lead to stagnation, and…

Philosophy Statistics

How Not To Think Like A Bayesian Rationalist

Lisping Rationalists When I read people like Eliezer Yudkowsky and Scott Alexander it becomes clear to me how the French could have built a Temple of Reason during The Terror.…

Philosophy

How Failing To Butcher Your Child Became “Child Abuse”

Three females, which I believe is significant, took to the pages of the journal Pediatrics and argued that failing to have a surgeon mutilate your child (for a large fee)…

Philosophy Statistics

The Frequency Interpretation Of Probability Is False: Some Reasons Contra von Mises

What is the chance that "Donald Trump wins the 2024 Presidential election"? Impossible to say, says Richard von Mises, because the event is singular and must be embedded in an…

Fun Philosophy

A Christmas Carol Revisited — Guest Post by Richard Law

Richard Law is a retired web engineer and writer living in Switzerland. 'Tis the season for Charles Dickens' (1812-1870) deservedly popular tale of the time-travels of Ebenezer Scrooge, A Christmas…

Philosophy

Doom For The Doomsday Argument

Heard of the Doomsday Argument, sometimes also called the Carter Catastrophe? It claims to be able to name the date, with a certain confidence, at which mankind dies off. It…

Philosophy

What Makes A Casino Gamble Different Than Making A Decision Under Uncertainty?

We continue with our week of pleasant Thanksgiving topics. A cop in the police procedural Hell Is A City (start around 54 minutes) discerned one of the bad guys he…

Culture Philosophy

Sex With Dogs & Other Critters Back In Vogue, Thanks To Academic Peter Singer

Very long time readers will know that we warned that the creation of the notion of "sexual orientation", and the criminalizing of "discrimination" against "sexual orientations", logically implied that all…

John Pate on The Various Solutions To Black Crime AnalyzedSeptember 13, 2025
I need a bit more of an explanation about "woke whites" - what exactly they are and what motivates them.…
cdquarles on The Various Solutions To Black Crime AnalyzedSeptember 12, 2025
Where I grew up, in the last days of Jim Crow, no-one really cared that much about skin color. It…
cdquarles on The False Expectation Of PermanenceSeptember 12, 2025
If the definition of an ice age, geologically speaking, is a large mass of perennially persistent ice over a substantial…
THVRSDAY LATE-EVENING EDITION - BIG PVLPIT on Use The Tools The Left Created Against ThemSeptember 11, 2025
[…] Nick Sorter on XFinis Disputatio – Ronald L. Jelinek, Ph.D., at Catholic World Report(NSFW) Use The Tools The Left…
Johnno on Use The Tools The Left Created Against ThemSeptember 11, 2025
The petard wearers must be hoisted! spudjr60, I pray that you and we all are prepared in the eventuality that…