Reasoning, Reasons, and Culpability.
My worldview has undergone a few changes over the years. Not just because of religious conversion or obvious things like that. It has usually been a book that has shifted my perspective in an unexpected direction. Take for example Mercier and Sperber's book...

A little burble about Mercier and Sperber's new book.

Compatibility Issues 2. In And Of The World
In part one, I argued for a mind-independent world, though I critiqued calling this world "reality" or projecting onto it human longings or idealisations. The mind-independent world is not "transcendental" or "absolute", it is neutral. And we do have some i...

Trump as the apotheosis of Baby Boomer Romanticism

The Heart Sutra and the Crisis in Buddhist Philology.
This is the 500th post on this blog. What appears here, over the 12 years or so since I was Ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Order in 2005, is a kind of intellectual diary or autobiography. It records what interested me, what I was learning about, and wh...

Compatibility Issues 3. Buddhism
In the first two parts of this essay I set up a scenario. I made a case for a mind-independent world, arguing that it is consistent with scientific knowledge and not inconsistent with early Buddhism. This dual approach hints at the overall purpose of the es...

Pests from Europe...

Compatibility Issues 1. A Mind-Independent World
Abstract  Is the world real or an illusion? This question reverberates throughout philosophy and religion. In part one of this essay I reiterate arguments in favour of the existence of a mind-independent world. A mind-independent world exists (is real ) and...