Philosophy
Since I was a Philosophy major at Penn, I’ve devoted a page specifically to my philosophical writings and related content, starting with my undergraduate work at Penn.
Open your eyes in the morning + think = Philosophy.
2009
I enjoyed reading George Soros’s newest book, The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What it Means, which lies at the intersection of two topics dear to my heart: philosophy and finance. I think the general thrust of his paradigm is correct, but the theory needs to be refined and improved if it is to catch more traction, so here is my response to George Soros, in which I explain, critique, and provide some advice for strengthening his theory of reflexivity.
2007
Explaining Away Explanation: Papineau and the Explanatory Gap
This is my senior-year Philosophy honors thesis from Penn, written under the supervision of Dr. Susan Schneider. Comments welcome.
2006
If you are one of those people who happen to think that Philosophy is bullshit, please let me give you a few reasons why it’s not. In March 2006, after one Harry Frankfurt, author of On Bullshit (and therefore somewhat of an expert on what constitutes bullshit, I suppose), sat down for lunch with Philosophy majors at Penn. Appropriately, a part of the discussion focused on his treatise on bullshit and it inspired me to devote one of my weekly columns in Penn’s weekly student newspaper to defend Philosophy against the cliche charge that it is a bullshit discipline.
My argument in a nutshell: Frankfurt defines bullshit as a lack of regard for truth. Philosophy, on the other hand, is a discipline devoted to the pursuit of truth. To say that Philosophy is bullshit is, therefore, an act of bullshit, for nothing could be further from the truth.
(As to what constitutes truth - whether it’s correspondence or coherence or something else entirely - I will leave that discussion for a later post).
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