Philosophy Phridays is a series where each Friday, I go to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, click on “random entry,” and then write about whatever comes up. This week’s random entry is Bodily Awareness. Bodily Awareness probably isn’t something most people think a lot about. Being aware of our bodies is the default. Virtually everyone…
People on the internet, or at least the small cross-section of Twitter I see on a regular basis, seem pretty upset that President Joe Biden has reneged on his pledge to cancel at least some student debt. President Biden said publicly several times that he would “knock off” at least $10,000 in student debt, and…
I’ve had a complicated relationship with my mother, as many children do. There were alot of problems, but the biggest one was that we’re too much alike. A surefire way to generate conflict is to put two smartasses together under the same roof, for years at a time, and under extraordinary amounts of stress. I…
Being a parent is hard. You’re literally responsible for another human being’s survival, but that’s not all. You also have to help them become a person- teach them about sharing, fairness, following the rules and listening to elders. Then you have to balance that against encouraging them to pursue their individuality, protect themselves, ask for…
If a person is looking to find out what Cyrus Chestnut is all about, this is the perfect record. It is thoroughly modern, but his influences are all there. It is jazz, but blues and gospel are never far away. It is clearly improvised, but never lacks direction. The album was recorded live at Smoke,…
I cut my fingernails the other day. (Oh no, where is this going?) Only, somehow, I missed one. It’s the index finger on my left hand. (How do you miss a finger when cutting your nails?) I don’t ever let my nails get particularly long, but now this one nail is noticeably longer than the…
10ish years ago, I gave up soda. I had an absolutely disastrous annual physical that year. My bad cholesterol was high, my good cholesterol was low, my blood pressure was high, and my blood sugar was high. I was overweight. I hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in years. Between having a full-time job, a…
As I’ve mentioned, I’m kind of dreading the new Star Wars movie. I’m going to see it, but I just haven’t been able to see any way it can be any good. I mean, Force Awakens was just so bad. How can The Last Jedi, a sequel to a bad movie with a nonsensical plot…
Edouard Machery doesn’t believe that thought experiments have any place in philosophy. That’s about the hottest hot take you can make in philosophy. The ground of philosophy is positively littered with thought experiments. Some of those are thousands of years old and others are quite recent. Machery does have the credentials to make the claim….
I got divorced this afternoon. It was weird. We went to the court house, signed some forms, waited for a while, then went before the judge. We sat there while the judge read our agreement. After that, we stood and swore to tell the truth. Next, my Ex’s (that sounds weird) lawyer asked her a…
