Dialogues #75 Read in browserâď¸ When you talk about philosophy, a lot of people's eyes glaze over because they had certain experiences with philosophy. - Gary Gulman I had no idea Gary Gulman cared so much about philosophy. But it shouldnât have surprised me. Iâve been a fan of standup comedy for as long as I can remember. My earliest impression probably came from watching Ed McMahon introduce comedians on Star Search. I have this foggy memory as a kid that I couldnât believe standup comedy...
about 1 month ago â˘Â 3 min read
Dialogues #74 Read in browserâď¸ "A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business." - Henry Ford I can't wait for you to hear the next podcast episode. A well-known comedian I've followed for over 20 years has been thinking a lot about philosophy lately. It should be out next week. But first: Iâve been thinking recently about business ethics. In a Harvard Business Review study, employees reported that the most important factor for their job was not a promotion, not better working...
about 2 months ago â˘Â 2 min read
Dialogues #73 Read in browserâď¸ Is a whole anything over and above its parts taken collectively? It is natural to think ânoâ. - A.J. Cotnoir Last week I introduced some of the difficulties for determining when an object counts as physical. Part of my motivation for this comes from a persistent view I still see that links anti-physicalism with a low, ignorant level of intelligence. Often that view is coupled with the related view that the physical sciences can exhaustively explain everything...
about 2 months ago â˘Â 3 min read
Dialogues #72 Read in browserâď¸ Our sentences about composite objects (e.g., 'There is a table in the room') are not made true or false by the world in the way we usually think. - Mark Balaguer For someone who claims that everything that exists is physical, they will need to specify exactly what they mean by that term, and what counts as physical evidence for a claim. Itâs not as easy as one might think. One way to get at what we might mean by physical is by theoretically simplifying reality...
2 months ago â˘Â 3 min read
Dialogues #71 Read in browserâď¸ Linguistics and logic... trade in the abstract while naturalism insists that everything be concrete. - Jerrold Katz, The Metaphysics of Meaning In 2025, I subtly teased that I was starting to work on a long-term project. More on that below. Why Didnât You Get My Last Email? First, some of you may have received the previous newsletter from December in your spam or âPromotionsâ tab. Behind the scenes, Gmail and other email services recently changed some backend...
2 months ago â˘Â 3 min read
Dialogues #70 Read in browserâď¸ You can't get everybody interested in philosophy. Most people just don't care. They just want to get on with their lives. Most people are followers. They're not looking to figure this stuff out on their own. - John Mackie 2025 was my first full year for this project: the newsletter, the podcast, and the course. First, the bad news. The logic course was an almost-total failure. I say âalmostâ because I was able to make some valuable connections with some of my...
3 months ago â˘Â 4 min read
Dialogues #69 Read in browserâď¸ Studying philosophy can have an addictive quality to it. When you walk out of a three hour seminar in grad school, critically examining a particular subject, you feel spent, your brain is mush. And I love that. Because even if I was walking out with more questions than I had answers, I knew that I was sharpening myself, sharpening my mind. And that's so important as a military officer. We get paid to lead units in very ambiguous situations that you have to...
3 months ago â˘Â 2 min read
Dialogues #68 Read in browserâď¸ I sometimes worry that the very things that make me love teaching will lead me to quit teaching. At its best, there's nothing like it. Even so, there are so many factors working against a successful classroom right now. It is difficult not to get discouraged. â Dolores G. Morris I love teaching, but Iâm now convinced that the formal education system has reached full crisis mode on any metric. I recently saw a post from a philosophy professor that expressed her...
4 months ago â˘Â 4 min read
Dialogues #67 Read in browserâď¸ For the first time in history, women hold substantial cultural and institutional power. Men and women differ, on average, in their values: women are more harm-averse, equity-oriented, and prone to resolving conflict through social exclusion. As a result, shifting sex compositions can bring palpable cultural change. The transition has been particularly dramatic in academia, where women were once almost entirely excluded and now constitute majorities. - Dr. Cory...
4 months ago â˘Â 2 min read