Official Website for Amitabha Palmer
Introduction Last night I went to go see a good friend of mine perform for his second time at an open mic comedy night. I went primarily to support him and secondarily hoping to be entertained. Although both of these goals were achieved (the latter, perhaps less so) I emerged from the club very unsettled and […]
Read More Racism, Comedy, Free Speech, and BuddhismPreambleHere’s a paper I maked for filosofy of sciences class. i maked it myself.There’s an inside joke with my professor Dr. J. Brown that needs some explaining to understand part of this paper. Every time he uses hypotheticals he always says “I could have come to class in a bear suit”. Anyway, the grad students […]
Read More Realism vs. Antirealism on Theoretical Entities: Maxwell vs van FraassenNotes and Thoughts on Arguments Concerning Scientific RealismSummarizing quote: “The rigour of science requires that we distinguish well the undraped figure of nature itself from the gay-coloured (heh!heh!he said “gay”) vesture with which we clothe it at our pleasure.”–Heinrich Hertz quoted by Ludwig Boltzmann, in turn quoted by Van Fraassen, in turn quoted by me.PreambleIn […]
Read More Realism vs. Anti-Realism 2: Arguments Concerning Scientific Realism by Bas Van FraassenNotes and Thoughts on “The Ontological Status of Theoretical Entities” by Grover MaxwellPreambleOne of the big debates in philosophy of science is between realists and anti-realist. Although there are many types of each, generally speaking we can say that realists think that our theories describe real entities while the anti-realist don’t. Here’s an example […]
Read More Realism vs Anti-Realism: Ontological Status of Theoretical Entities by MaxwellNotes and Thoughts on A Response to Scalia by DworkinOverviewNote, some of the content in the article–as you might expect–refers back to the Scalia posts.Dworkin agrees with Scalia that the Constitution should be interpreted according to original textual meaning but distinguishes two approaches. The first is semantic originalism: the idea that clauses ought to be […]
Read More Constitutional Interpretation: Dworkin’s Response to ScaliaPart 2 of Notes and Thoughts on Interpreting the Constitutions by Antonin Scalia Key Quote:“To be a textualist in good standing, one need not be too dull to perceive the broader social purposes that a statute is designated, or could be designated, to serve; or too hide-bound to realize that new times require new laws. One […]
Read More Constitutional Interpretation: Originalism & Textualism (Scalia) Part 2Notes and Thoughts on Interpreting the Constitution by Antonin Scalia I apologize for typos and such, I haven’t had time to thoroughly proof read this post yet.PreambleSo, I’m writing my philosophy of law paper on constitutional interpretation; “originalism” in particular. At first, I thought the whole idea of originalism kind of silly, but after doing some […]
Read More Constitutional Interpretation: Originalism and Textualism (Scalia) Part 1Notes and Thoughts on Moral Disagreement as Discussed in Parfit’s “On What Matters” Ch. 34Parfit Vs Basic Argument from DisagreementSuppose you and your counterpart are in ideal epistemic conditions. You are aware of and agree on all the non-normative facts yet your opinions differ on what the true moral belief is. In a way, we […]
Read More Parfit on Moral Disagreement: Part 2Notes and Thoughts on Parfit and Moral Disagreement (Ch. 34)IntroductionBefore getting into the philosophy, for those of you who aren’t familiar with the trolley thought experiments, answer these questions before proceeding:Trolly Q1: You are driver of a runaway tram which you can only steer from one narrow track on to another; five men are working […]
Read More Moral Disagreement Part 1: ParfitConflict Between the Ten Commandments and the Constitution and the People who Think the Two Can Be Appealed to for Public PolicyI’m supposed to be working on a paper but what I heard got me so worked up, I had to write something about it. NPR was broadcasting a debate between contestants in the Texas […]
Read More Rant: Conflict Between the Ten Commandments and the Constitution
Wrestling with Philosophy 