"Free Will" vs. "Determinism" What does it mean to have "solved" a philosophical problem? This is, in itself, a philosophical problem. I don't feel comfortable saying I've solved any philosophical problems, but what if I propose a notion of having "minimally solved" a problem - that is, not necessary coming up with the right answer, let alone an answer that will end the debate for everyone, but coming up with the general shape or framework (perhaps missing some important specifics) of an answer that satisfies me , at least to the point where the problem doesn't endlessly torture me and keep me up at night? If, by "solved," we mean "minimally solved," then I think I have solved the problem that is usually called the debate between "free will" and "determinism". Not that my answer is particularly original. Actually, not I, but modern neuroscience solved this puzzle. And all I mean is tha...
CURTIS YARVIN IS A POSTMODERNIST "They Hate Us For Our Freedom" Since 2007, there has been a tiny, marginal movement on the internet, or several overlapping movements, started by a person named Curtis Yarvin, better known by his assumed name, "Mencius Moldbug." (I'll use that name; it's less obscure.) Spreading out from Silicon Valley, where it first became trendy, the movement(s) have been known by various names. Moldbug originally called his political philosophy "formalism" - at that time, he was advocating for the government being run in the style of a corporation - especially a Silicon Valley startup - with a powerful CEO. But that never caught on, and he abandoned it in favor of "neo-cameralism." But this turned out not to capture anyone's imagination either, and so other names appeared: the Dark Enlightenment, neo-monarchism, and most famous of all, the "NeoReactionary movement" - NRx for short. Are all thes...
There are a lot of ways to look at Donald Trump. One useful way is to think of Donald Trump as a member of what I like to call the lumpenbourgeoisie. As far as I know, I made that term up. I don't know if that is a term that other people have used before - if they have, I am probably using the word differently than they did. As I see it, there's the actual class that has monopolistic control over the means of production - the bourgeoisie - and then, somewhere below that, there is the lumpenbourgeoisie. But I am not using this terminology in a crude, vulgar, mechanical, economistic sense. It's not as if there's some number which divides the bourgeoisie from the lumpenbourgeoisie, as economic income brackets. To understand the difference between the bourgeoisie and the lumpenbourgeoisie, one must understand the concept of class formation . Marx wrote about this complex and fascinating topic, though his remarks are brief and sca...
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