A spaceship explodes in space, with one of two components to blame - Part 1

• July 14, 2007
• James Skemp

A space ship launches, and while in space, it explodes. Let us assume we can see all possible reasons it could have exploded, and we find that there is an equal chance for one of two components to fail, which therefore would have caused the explosion. In either case, the end result would have been the same, down to the smallest particle. In other words, not even a god could discern any difference between the conclusion of the explosion; everything is exactly in the same place in either case.

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Philosophical thoughts - 7/10/2007

• July 11, 2007
• James Skemp

The following thoughts are from approximately 10:20 last night. While I'd like to believe that technology is good, part of me believes the opposite. So close are they, in fact, that I can make no decision one way or another, try as I might. While it's true science can heal us, all too often life itself is placed above the reason for life - the reason to live. True, we will soon be living longer and longer, but at what price?

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An interesting monologue overheard - July 8, 2007

• July 10, 2007
• James Skemp

This weekend we went down to the Capitol for Madison's farmer's market on the square. While walking towards the square (the streets surrounding the Capitol building) I overheard a glimpse of a man's speech. While I only heard part of, and I have no idea what was going on before or after the conversation, it sounded quite like a monologue. The gist of his speech was that there's a fight to give illegal immigrants legal status in America.

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On the Dangers of "Is and Is Not Not"

• June 10, 2007
• James Skemp

Logically speaking, the rule of Double Negation tells us that p :: ~~p. In order words, if something is blue, it is not not blue. Unfortunately, this is one of the rules for sentential logic that is philosophically troubling.

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Review of Andrew Fiala's Practical Pacifism

• May 26, 2007
• James Skemp

This is the review that I wrote for Amazon.com for the book Practical Pacifism by Andrew Fiala.

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The saddest story

• April 22, 2007
• James Skemp

Humble reader, what is the saddest story?

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Cho Seung-Hui Against All: On Societies Need to Ostracize the Ill

• April 20, 2007
• James Skemp

“These wars, famines, floods and quakes meet well-defined needs. Man wants chaos. In fact, he’s gotta have it. Depression, strife, riots, murder, all this dread. We’re irresistibly drawn to that almost orgiastic state created out of death and destruction. It’s in all of us. We revel in it. Sure, the media tries to put a sad face on these things, painting them up as great human tragedies. But we all know the function of the media has never been to eliminate the evils of the world, no. Their job is to persuade us to accept those evils and get used to living with them. The powers that be want us to be passive observers.” - Waking Life

Unfortunately, I haven’t kept up all that much with the recent (April 17, 2007) shootings in Virginia. However, I’ve seen and heard a disturbing trend, namely the dehumanizing and ostracizing of the shooter, Cho Seung-Hui. Quite frankly, this is disturbing.

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Two things re: the Today show

• March 3, 2007
• James Skemp

Two comments after watching the Today show this morning.

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Schopenhauer's Prefaces to The World as Will and Representation

• February 11, 2007
• James Skemp

Arthur Schopenhauer's The World as Will and Representation (Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung) went through three editions in Schopenhauer's lifetime, and accordingly there are three prefaces, one for each edition. The first was written in 1818, the second in 1844, and the third in 1859.

Today I'll be looking at the preface of each of the three editions, and providing an analysis of what he has attempted to get across within each.

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Arthur Schopenhauer's books in Samtliche Werke

• January 28, 2007
• James Skemp

In this article, I'll be covering the five books that compose the German Sämtliche Werke, published by Suhrkamp.

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