Author: philosophami

Philosopher, judoka, coach, traveller, hiker, dancer, and dog-lover.

My Growing Disappointment with the New Atheist Movement: A Review of "The Unbelievers"

Tonight (Thursday Apr. 4) I went to a screening of “The Unbelievers” which was followed by a live Q&A with the stars, Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss.  The event was held in the UNLV event center (Cox Pavilion) and it was very well attended.  Almost all the seats were taken. I wasn’t particularly motivated to […]

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Critical Thinking: The Secret Technique Professors Don’t Want You to Know!

IntroductionCritical thinking sounds fancy but it’s something most of us do everyday.  In fact, most of us are quite good at it…so long as we are properly motivated.   Unfortunately, we absolutely suck when the motivation is wrong–and I’m not talking about money. What do I mean by all this talk of correct and incorrect […]

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Annual Fitness Post: Injury Prevention with Breathing Technique

Over the last several years I’ve pretty much covered every meaningful piece of advice on how to get in shape.  http://missiontotransition.blogspot.ca/2013/01/annual-fitness-advice-post-using-social.htmlhttp://missiontotransition.blogspot.com/2012/01/no-nonsense-fitness-guide.html. http://missiontotransition.blogspot.com/2010/10/nutrition-rant-simple-vs-complex-carbs.html http://missiontotransition.blogspot.com/2010/06/i-was-planning-on-attacking-some-recent.html http://missiontotransition.blogspot.com/2010/07/health-and-nutrition-part-2.html http://missiontotransition.blogspot.com/2010/07/health-and-nutrition-part-3-hopefully.html This year I’m going to cover how to prevent injury.  I’d say that this is probably the most difficult lesson for former competitive athletes to learn because the most significant […]

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How To Evaluate a Scientific Study: The Actual Study Vs How a Study is Reported

Back in the pre-internetz days, there were fewer media outlets.  Nowadays, there is no shortage of websites that have news that is tailor-made for your biases interests.  Of course, having only a few media outlets is a double-edged sword.  I probably don’t have to list all the disadvantages of there being only a few media […]

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Mill: On Utilitarianism

Mill would might respond to Arnold one of 2 ways.  First, he might say that while pain might sometimes be an instrumental good, it is not a good in itself (unlike pleasure).  Therefore, pain cannot be pleasure.  Second, he might respond that Arnold is confused.  He seems to be saying that, for him, growing is […]

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Kantian Ethics: A Summary

Introduction and ContextKant is considered to be one of the most important philosophers ever…EVER!  Therefore, everything he says it true.  The end.  Well, not quite.   Lets avoid appeals to authority and look at the arguments ourselves, shall we? As I mentioned in earlier posts the difference between the 3 main ethical theories (virtue, deontology, consequentialism) […]

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The Moral Problem: Michael Smith

Introduction and ContextSo far it looks like if we’re moral realists (i.e., we believe there are objective moral facts) we are in deep doo-doo.  In Why Be Moral, Glaucon and Adeimantus compellingly argue that it’s better to appear moral than to actually be moral.  The Euthyphro dilemma shows that appealing to God can’t, on its […]

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