The organism is controlled by entirely synthetic DNA developed in the lab. The research will most likely have negative ethical implications (real or imagined) but also significant potential for good. ‘This is literally a turning point in the relationship between man and nature,’ said molecular b... [More]

Morris, in an article for the Huffington Post, picks up on the new New York Times blog on philosophy and spends some time defining the discipline and explaining why everyone one should be doing it. It seems philosophy is striking some chords with the wider population. "Journalists have called me ... [More]

Noam Chomsky, that innovative linguistic, is not known for mincing words. Now it seems language—his raison d'etre—is keeping him out of the West Bank. Chomsky was set to give a lecture at Birzeit University when he was stopped at the Jordan border. According to the professor, “the government did not... [More]

Philosophy has long been out of vogue. Mainly relegated either to ivory towers or to mainstream books with titles like [Your Favorite Cultural Icon] and Philosophy, it’s now showing up alongside All the News That’s Fit to Print. The New York Times has just launched a new forum on philosophy called T... [More]

I recently bemoaned the misuse of important philosophical concepts by the blogosphere. I came across another article that uses the term epistemic closure and the usage in this article is even more puzzling than in the first. While this article by Rod Dreher is no more about epistemology in a philoso... [More]

I came across this op-ed piece in the New York Times today by Al Gore on global warming. While there’s little of obvious philosophical value in this article, as one who grew up in a very conservative Christian church, I’ve been struck by the similarities between the language Gore uses to articulate ... [More]

Metaphysical gadfly Sam Harris has stirred the pot once again by raising the issue of whether a general theory of ethics can be based solely on a scientific foundation. In an article for the Huffington Post, Harris responds to feedback he has received on a recent talk he gave at the TED conference i... [More]

I have a friend, a postmodernist, who believes that language constitutes thought. As a corollary, he believes that without language we couldn’t think. He told me recently that he first encountered the idea in a class he took on Plato. If all of Western philosophy indeed are footnotes to Plato, then ... [More]

TABLE TALK SERIES That’s Common Sense! by Rick Pimentel There are so many issues that people discuss with one another that have philosophical significance. Whether it is at the dinner table or at a restaurant or at a café or in the living room or on the phone, we all discuss issues that pertain t... [More]

Upcoming conference on Rorty's philosophy will focus not only on his rhetorical method but on his impact on digital technology. See here for a schedule of speakers. The conference is titled, "Time Will Tell, But Epistemology Won't: In Memory of Richard Rorty".