USUPhilosophy

(thanks to Eric Brown) 3:AM Magazine has an interview with Scott Berman, who teaches ancient philosophy and treats it as real. (Not that that is anything unusual to USU philosophy students.) It’s fun to read. An excerpt:

The fact that we do have science now is confirmation that Plato was right, or so I think anyway. He thought that unless there exist things that can never change, there can’t be objects that are stable enough for knowledge, i.e., science. And so, he argued against Nominalism, that is, the idea that all that exists are spatiotemporal things, and Constructivism, that is, the idea that the measures or criteria of what things are can change. He argued that if there exist non-spatiotemporal things, then such things could be the objects of science and hence that science is possible. Laws of natures, for example, would be non-spatiotemporal things according to Plato and so aren’t located anywhere (because they are non-spatial) and can’t change (because they are non-temporal). That’s the sort of Platonist I am.

You should know how to access online resources. The first one is available through campus computers (it requires a license). The name is “The Philosopher’s Index”:

Philosopher’s Index

It is a pretty sophisticated search engine for finding relevant articles and books on topics and figures. If you mess around with it for a bit, you’ll see how it works.

The second is “Philpapers,” and it is a little more straightforward to use, and it can be accessed from any computer. It is linked on the blogroll on the right, but here is the link again:

http://philpapers.org/

I have updated my advice on this page, after talking to a former professor of mine who has considerable experience with graduate admissions committees. Comments and questions welcome!

… you could do worse than watch this series of lectures by Harvard professor Michael Sandel (thanks to Shashank Chauhan for the tip). The topic is “justice,” and the lectures are nicely focused and entertaining.

Welcome to Shashank Chauhan, Cameron Davis, Mathias Fuelling, Beau Peterson, Michael Otteson, Justin Solum, and Professor Erica Holberg, as new members of Phi Sigma Tau – Utah Gamma! The traditions were honored, and a good time was had by all.

See more pictures… Continue reading “Phi Sigma Tau Initiation”