“The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.”
–Alfred North Whitehead

  • On Consciousness and the Brain

    This is my textual response to Steve Ramirez’s post: Steve, First, thanks for taking the time to rebut, in writing, some of my statements concerning consciousness on YouYube. As a thinker, I can hardly think of a more helpful gift than a detailed counter-posturing in response to my ideas. I think consciousness is involved in Read more


  • Consciousness: The Holy Grail of Neuroscience

    The following is a video response I posted on YouTube to a blog post by Steve Ramirez about consciousness and neuroscience.     He writes the following: Matthew Segall, known popularly as “0ThouArtThat0″ on youtube, is as eloquent as any up and coming philosopher – an eloquence rivaled in magnitude only by his deep misunderstanding of how science Read more

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  • messages about the purpose of philosophizing…

    Here is a message and my response that I’ve exchanged over on YouTube as 0ThouArtThat0.   From YouTube user drchaffee:   Thanks for understanding that I wasn’t trying to demean you with my length-constrained message to your video. I’ve had a question rolling around in my head for a couple of days, and I just Read more


  • On the loss of loved ones

    Our losses of loved ones are not true losses, though they may leave temporary wounds in our heart. Death is not an end, but the transformation of what will always remain alive. Life is immortal, though it may seem to die in this or that place from time to time. The living breath of the Read more


  • A Prayer to Burn the Man and Birth the Son

    music by Caribou, Sun Read more


  • A personal correspondence about the universe.

    The following is an email exchanged with a good friend of mine doing doctoral work on complexity theory as it applies to neuroscience at Florida Atlantic University. My email is in response to this Science Daily article about a measured variance in a specific physical constant: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100909004112.htm Perhaps I’ll post his response when it comes Read more

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“In one sense philosophy does nothing. It merely satisfies the entirely impractical craving to probe and adjust ideas which have been found adequate each in its special sphere of use. In the same way the ocean tides do nothing. Twice daily they beat upon the cliffs of continents and then retire. But have patience and look deeper; and you find that in the end whole continents of thought have been submerged by philosophic tides, and have been rebuilt in the depths awaiting emergence. The fate of humanity depends upon the ultimate continental faith by which it shapes its action, and this faith is in the end shaped by philosophy.” 

Alfred North Whitehead