1. Charts and graphs may have their place in philosophy, but this is taking things too far.
2. An angel comes to the APA and offers to answer one question…
3. An audio illusion, via Lewis Powell, who reminds us of these words from Locke: “We are further to consider concerning perception, that the ideas we receive by sensation are often, in grown people, altered by the judgment, without our taking notice of it.”
4. The late Professor Emeritus Charles Magel, who founded the Philosophy Department at Minnesota State University Moorhead, bequeathed $800,000 to the university for scholarships.
5. A high school ethics and philosophy program received an award from the University of New Hampshire Board of Trustees earlier this month.
6. “Our modern societies, which claim to be secular, are, on the contrary, governed by secularised theological concepts, which act all the more powerfully because we are not conscious of their existence.” — an interview with Giorgio Agamben.
7. As background there’s the simulation argument; then there’s the study suggesting the universe ought not exist. What else might count as evidence that we are not really here? How about a news story that is too funny to be true? It is SFW, but it is about getting trapped in a giant vagina (via a source who does not wish her name to be forever linked on the internet with the words “giant vagina”).
8. The creators of South Park animated some brief snippets of lectures from Eastern philosophy populizer Alan Watts.
9. There is a series of mystery novels featuring a detective, Nicolaos, who happens to be the brother of Socrates and (spoiler alert!) is engaged to Diotima.
10. A long rant on the whether philosophy has “access to the information it needs to solve the kind of problems it purports to solve.”
11. I dare you to watch this entire video. Is there a lesson here for teachers?