The situation with AI has thrown a shadow across the civilised consensus world-view which was still alive-and-kicking up to 2022. Most philosophers probably reject this shadow, but the reality is that a huge mass of intelligent and energetic people have endorsed it, and that philosophy has been ruthlessly sidelined by […]

The events surrounding the computer revolution (1960) wrecked chaos with the relative values of computing and maths, and thus with their relationships as scholarly bodies. Those who led the development in Silicon Valley had very little respect for the opinions of the higher mathematicians and even less for the authority […]

The realm of mathematics is extraordinarily wide… it can, in principle,  cover anything which <<has some kind of pattern>>. But this pattern’s extraordinary range should not tempt us into thinking that it covers everything. Of course it doesn’t. Most of the actions we see around us are not ‘predictable’.  A […]

Today the one concept which is treated with great respect by millions of intelligent people is MATTER. Many have lost confidence in the venerable religions, and —even more— the brutal secular ideologies which caused so much bloodshed and destruction in the 20th century. (Religion still dominates in the Middle East […]

A previous instalment showed how Descartes established the activity of modern philosophy… as a daring imaginative exploration of the possibilities of future knowledge. But closer to home there is a very potent development which should be taken into account in re-thinking philosophy. It is that Ludwig Wittgenstein’s principal mantra <<Don’t […]

The previous instalment of this blog (No. 79) looked at the implications of today’s muddled world which has tried to “get by” with an attitude which actively avoids a great deal of “theory” and has virtually abandoned philosophy. It also showed how Descartes established the activity of modern philosophy… as […]

The previous instalment of this blog (No. 78) looked at the implications of today’s muddled world which has tried to “get by” with an attitude which actively avoids a great deal of “theory” and has virtually abandoned philosophy. It also showed how Descartes established the activity of modern philosophy… as […]

The previous instalment of this blog  (No. 77) showed how serious the collapse of philosophy has been… how a formerly much valued, challenging element in rational thinking has gone AWOL.  Frank Furedi wrote a book which asked this question: <<Where have all the PHILOSOPHERs gone?>> The intellectual subset of the […]

Today the state of philosophy in the intellectual discussionsphere is in decline in both width and weight… and quite pathetic in quality. Where have the “Big Beasts” of philosophy gone? There seem to be no successors with the reputation, discipline or standing which were achieved by Wittgenstein, Ayer, Popper or […]

The Exceptionally Deep Dilemma which faces humankind today is that adulation about mathematic modes and values (a quest to establish a math-topia of regimentation) is becoming more and more oppressive, but the number of people qualified and minded to criticise this oppresive creeping Holy Grail is almost nil. So we […]