Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

In reply to Roderick T. Long. “I’ll examine them and reply more fully in future” Sure about that? LikeLike

In reply to David Potts. Thanks for your comments! I’ll examine them and reply more fully in future, but for the moment I just want to reply to this: “since atomic motion is deterministic, every post-swerve motion is deterministic until a …

In reply to Irfan Khawaja. “If the answer is “no,” then the cost of a purely libertarian approach to health care is to sacrifice one of the basic principles of public health–that clinical trials should be distinguished from administration of a dr…

In reply to Roderick T. Long. Hi Roderick, Thanks for the paper, it was thought-provoking and interesting. On the question of whether an Epicurean needs a new swerve for every free human action, I gather from the paper that your view is that the mere f…

In reply to Roderick T. Long. I had read Kevin’s piece before, but not Boldrin and Levine’s. I have thoughts on both, but don’t see the relevance of either to this post. I agree with a lot of what Kevin says, and disagree with some, b…

In reply to Michael Brazier. Now that’s something I can disagree with. You say: A libertarian can – and does – cite such cases as evidence that the FDA should not exist, because even as a piece of pragmatism it does more harm than good. Such arg…

I guess it’s appropriate that we can’t agree on what the brain worms metaphor’s original vehicle actually is. In his description of the Internet culture term, Max Read claims, reasonably, that the originals are maybe like tapeworms or toxoplasma. But I always think about the Ceti Eel in Wrath of Khan (but then, I’m always thinking of Wrath of Khan, especially, these…