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The phrase ‘fons et origo‘ is Latin for ‘source and origin’. It is in this context that we say that Ancient Athens is the fons et origo of democracy, for example. The word ‘fons‘ also has the more literal meaning of ‘spring’ or ‘fountain’, and so the source of the River Thames (near Cirencester inContinue reading “_Fons et origo_: on Freedom and Originality”

Now, I have a reputation for being able to teach most areas of philosophy. There are exceptions, of course, such as strange, continental-flavoured modules like ‘Feminist Philosophy’ and ‘Marxism’, but that is broadly correct. An odd mixed sort of module is ‘Philosophy of Religion’. Now, as everyone knows, analytical philosophers do not do silly obscureContinue reading “Divine Hoorays: or ‘The Will to Power’ revisited”

Okay, so I have been a bit teasing about the actual nature of telepathy in previous posts, claiming that, since we do not understand mental concepts very well (such is Philosophy, after all), it follows that we do not know that telepathy is impossible, a gigantic hoax, or something of the same order as humanContinue reading “How telepathy works: or the Jim and Pedro show”

We have already discussed the Vanishing Self when we dealt with David Hume. So, what more is there to say? Well, there is always the Austrian dimension again, including the man who thought that the no-longer-existing-Self, like ancient Gaul, was divided into three parts: (1) The Ego, which handles most of the publicity (well, itContinue reading “Verbal slippage: or Freud re-visited”

I hate to repeat myself, still less to repeat the words of someone else discussed in the previous post, A New Treatise of Human Nature (from ‘On Personal Identity’, in case you were wondering), but some passages are so famous (and so weird) that they need to be constantly kept in mind, lest they disappearContinue reading “The Stream of Consciousness”

You may find it hard to suppose that a young man from the fair city of Edinburgh, recently recovered from a Nervous Breakdown whilst pondering the awful conflict between Reason and Nature, who also provoked the world, drove his very own Empiricist Tradition into a dead-end according to some (and an early grave, according toContinue reading “A New Treatise of Human Nature”

I dare say that you think that a highly respected Anglo-Irish bishop from Cloyne and an excommunicated lens-grinder from a certain district of Amsterdam make curious bed-fellows. There are, of course, certain details which need never come to light, let alone passed through a lens, should you simply do me the courtesy of paying attentionContinue reading “A Short Treatise on Berkeley and Spinoza”

All right, all right, this is a page that dare not speak its name. I won’t even put that last sentence into bold face, I’m so ashamed to talk about it. Love reign o’er me, as some golden-headed boy once said. Who he, I hear you ask? Well, just don’t. It’s very rude. Like havingContinue reading “A Simple Desultory Philippic: sort of …”