Let’s start with the modest metaphysical assumption that we all live on planet Earth. This means we have a shared reality. One that is populated with various and sundry objects (or better, containing stuff that c […]

One of the hazards of teaching philosophers like Descartes and Hume is that some students are too willing to embrace the skeptical claims and sit content with not being able to know. The idea that “It’s all just […]

I’m not sure what it is for something to be true to a person. For a person to believe something is for them to take it to be true. So maybe that’s what people have in mind when they talk about something being […]

(Email: April 8, 2021)

Welcome back and Happy First Day of Spring Quarter!  

Hard to believe that one year ago we started our first fully remote quarter. So much has happened in that year, and we still h […]

One of the joys of having an open-source text out there is occasionally getting pleasantly surprised with who it reaches. Glad you’re finding my Intro worthwhile. In an introduction to philosophy I’d rather hope […]

A popular view in our culture is that people who do wrong should be punished as a matter of retribution. Retribution is holding a person responsible by treating them according to the standard they set for […]

We humans are very prone to suffer from a psychological predicament we might call “the security blanket paradox.” We know the world is full of hazards and like passengers after a shipwreck we tend to latch on to […]

The big discoveries in philosophy are more often problems than new ideas. People have been thinking about philosophical issues forever and philosophers have entertained a super-abundance of seemingly good ideas. […]

Cancel culture has taken lots of criticism recently, and in so far as cancel culture means hastily judging people without trying to understand them, I’m on board. But for the same reason I worry about the […]

Cultural norms often go far beyond morality. Morality has nothing to say, for instance, about whether men should grow beards or women should wear veils or makeup. So what is accepted or disapproved of in a […]

(Email: January 14, 2021)

As a follow up to recent discussions about addressing difficult topics and current events in your classroom, I’m sharing a short list of additional resources. This is by no means c […]

(Email: January 14, 2021)

Hope you are well! I urge you to be understanding and flexible with students and colleagues over this week, as many have been “disconnected” as a result of the recent storms.  Not […]

(Email: January 5, 2021)

Welcome back and Happy 2021!

I hope you had a relaxing and rejuvenating winter break. With vaccines surfacing there is some hope for being on campus again by sometime in […]

(Email: January 5, 2021)

First, I want to congratulate those who recently gained Lecturer promotions. Thank you for your service to our students. Your hard work and efforts, and that of all adjunct faculty, […]

(Email: November 24, 2020)

As fall quarter winds down, we want to again make sure that you have the basic technology needed to effectively teach online during COVID. We put together a simple form for you to us […]

(Email: December 17, 2020 and January 5, 2021)

Jody Laflen, the Dean of IBIT, has recently shared that she will be leaving BC to take on other pursuits as of December 18th.  I want to thank Jody for h […]

(Email: December 11, 2020)

As finals draw to a close, I just wanted to send out a short note to wish you all a restful and peaceful break. May your holidays, whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, […]

(Email: December 8, 2020)

As you contemplate the new decade and the eventual end of COVID-quarantine …. I wanted to send a quick reminder that Sabbatical Leave applications for academic year 2021-22 are due on […]

I’ll have to research this one, but I’m pretty sure Nietzsche would count righteousness, the sense that bad must absolutely be punished. as a sublimated impulse to cruelty, a diseased manifestation of the will to […]

I’m not one to wish suffering on others, but what I wish for Trump’s followers is probably going to involve some of that and I’d acknowledge that with a good deal of sorrow. It’s not that I think anyone […]