Lecturer in Philosophy, University of St. Andrews
I’ve decided to start a new substack. From now on, I’ll be publishing my random thoughts there: https://axdouglas.substack.com/
If you’ve liked reading of my posts here, I hope you’ll consider signing up. I have no plan to ever start charging you money for it, though nor do I plan to pay anyone to read it.
I came across an interesting passage in the Introduction to John Laird’s (1920) A Study in Realism:
Note footnote 3.
Thomas Reid (1710 – 96) was, of course, the great Scottish proponent of realism and common sense. According to Victor Cousin, his philosophy became the conventional wisdom in Scottish philosophy, everywhere except St Andrews. St Andrews escaped the dogma because of the presence of one figure: James Frederick Ferrier (1808 – 1864).
Continue reading “St Andrews: A Haven from Realism”
Sometimes I like to think of humanity as a big engine for converting energy into happiness. I don’t want to fuss too much over what “happiness” means here. It is the thing I think we generally seek in our lives. I wrote a whole book about beatitude if you want to get into that.
Continue reading “The Theory of Hedonic Heat”
The word “neoliberalism” is thrown around in many leftist circles. In many centrist circles it is complained about as an empty term. To me it has a meaning, although others will disagree with my definition.
A liberal, as far as political economy goes, believes in letting free markets determine social outcomes with minimal intervention from the state. A neoliberal believes in using the power of the state to force the social outcome that a free market, if only such a thing were possible, would have delivered. Neoliberalism is coercion trying to simulate freedom, on some definition of “freedom”.
What are its consequences?
Continue reading “Neoliberalism and the Planet”
Update: Brian Romanchuk has written an excellent response to my post here.
J.E. Gordon’s excellent old book, The Science of Strong Materials: Or Why You Don’t Fall Through the Floor, calls an arch “an apparent impossibility”.
Why does an arch seem impossible? Imagine building an arch from one side. Each wedge-shaped stone (or “voussoir” as it’s technically called) is held in place by the one above it. But this means that each voussoir you try to lay (besides the first, or maybe the first two) must fall. You can put another on to hold it in place, but then there will be nothing to hold up this new voussoir.
Continue reading “How the Engineering of Arches Explains Money”
Alexander Douglas 