This is the first post of three where I reflect on the history of science. I’m starting with projectile motion, a phenomenon that nagged at Aristotle’s Physics. It was not long after Aristotle’s death that members of his school began to comment on the weakness of his explanation for projectile motion. Projectile motion occurs when …
1.) It is fairly well known that Aristotle’s science could not well explain projectile motion (the flight of arrows, thrown stones, and, later, cannonballs). It is not so well known that the rival Greek atomists could not explain it either. I’ll explore the reasons why both failed, and why the medieval theory of impetus began …
Coming Soon: Two topics in the history of science Read More »
I have an account with academia.edu, an aggregation site for scientists and humanists. I don’t post essays there; I favor ResearchGate and PhilPapers. But academia.edu sends me weekly requests: they have found a list of references to my name and would I please indicate whether these references really are to me. I had been ignoring …
The video which I posted a while back discussing Parkinson’s disease and Stoicism and me ran about an hour and 1/2. I thought it might be better to replace it with a series of shorter videos made by cutting up the original. But this proved a daunting task so I settled for adding to the …
This week I’ve been thinking about a talk I’ll be giving in July on Plato and democracy. Why does Plato think that democracy tends towards tyranny? Should we be afraid he might be right? In previous talks on this topic I told Plato’s story how a democracy can change into a tyranny, with disturbing parallels …
I have released a video of a talk about philosophy, PD, stoicism and me. The talk was given at OLLI UO in February.
There is another theme in this blog: Parkinson’s disease. In 2016 I wrote a short book reflecting on my experience as a philosopher descending into Parkinson’s disease (A Shaky Walk Downhill : A Philosopher Moves into Parkinson’s World). It’s time for a five year update: alas, nothing has changed for the better. My symptoms have …
So why am I trying a blog at age 82? I do have good examples of a successful blog from Robert Paul Wolff, whose forthright opinions are most refreshing. There are fine examples of blogs by retired philosophers: Robert Paul Wolff, Hans Sluga, and others. Then there is Austin Kleon’s book Share Your Work, where …
I have been running a website for years, adding every few months some self-description and references to things newly written or delivered. My net presence has been for the most part an index or a catalog. I have had both Facebook and Twitter accounts for years but not used them extensively, since I am uneasy …
I have a very wide fund of knowledge about many issues, disciplines and cultures, nonetheless I have some niche interests, rather narrow and by writing about them in a blog maybe I’d find out whether they are shared at all. This means that the blog will contain posts on different topics and I will need …