Ultrafinitism Is Interesting

Lately one has been trawling YouTube for lectures on subjects in higher mathematics, physics, computer science, and economics. These lectures, like the ones from MIT OpenCourseWare (generally excellent, but limited), can be run in the corner of one's screen to refresh one's recollection, or perhaps even learn new ideas not covered in one's student days, while performing other tasks which do not require total concentration. In this course, one ran across the productions of one Norman J. Wildberger.

Political Correctness and Hyper-Straussianism

There is a Straussian school of textual interpretation named after its founder, Leo Strauss, and which forms part of a larger framework of Straussianism.

At the core of Straussian interpretation is the insight, often forgotten by modern readers, that past thinkers, like Socrates, often lived under conditions which would have rendered some conclusions dangerous to state. The ruler or the religious establishment may take offense to some conclusions and punish the thinker should he openly state them, as indeed was the cause of Socrates' death.

The Idea of My Year: Curry-Howard Correspondence

Edited on September 20, 2015 to add footnote 4.

Curry-Howard Correspondence was first published in 1969, before the author was born, but the author only learned of it in the present year. That alone is enough to induce a desire to go back to everybody one has ever encountered, starting with one's mother and father, grab and shake them, and cry You knew I lived, breathed, thought! Yet, you allowed me to remain in ignorance that such beauty and cleverness existed. How could you have been so cruel and thoughtless? Regardless, it is the idea of the author's year. To rescue the reader from the purgatory that ignorance of Curry-Howard Correspondence is, let one make an inexpert attempt to explain it here.

Whose Side Are You On, Anyway?

Recent comments on abortion have provoked friends, acquaintances, and strangers alike to make the above inquiry and—in some of the less friendly instances—to imply that one is a renegade from a cause previously believed to have been shared. In the past, comments on climate change, immigration, homosexuality, crime, religion, and others, have caused similar responses.

One could, perhaps, just state one's ultimate conclusions—of which the author is in ample supply—add some venomous barbs for all who do not share them, and consider the job well done. Indeed, most commentary seems to fall squarely within that category.¹

The Unconscious Violinist and More Realistic Hypotheticals

One argument—once very common, but perhaps less so today—in favor of an wide-ranging right to abortion was put forth by Prof. Judith Jarvis Thomson in A Defense of Abortion, said to be the most widely reprinted paper in the history of philosophy:

The Paradox of the Lying Judge, Part 2

Another post discussed what is commonly called the Paradox of the Unexpected Hanging. The conclusion was not that the judge might have been lying, even though he turned out not to be, and that the lawyer's argument is somehow flawed for not taking that possibility into account. The conclusion was that the judge most definitely was lying (or, used synonymously here, mistaken).

The Paradox of the Lying Judge

In the discussions of the pirate puzzle an interesting point was raised when Robert Murphy of Texas Tech mused¹ that there may be an analogy to what is conventionally called the Paradox of the Unexpected Hanging.

The Bullet in the Head

A philosopher is a friend (or lover) of the Truth. One might think that this would be a curious distinction to claim as are we not all friends (or lovers) of the Truth and, hence, every man and every woman a philosopher?

A Philosophical Dialogue on Obligation (with Some Action)

Two philosophers, A and B, taking a walk along a lakeside and debating their subject, when they notice a child apparently drowning in the lake. B is physically frail and cannot swim, but A is a strong swimmer and so immediately sets out to jump into the lake.

Primitive Christianity

I happened across this passage in my recent reading and, while it is well-known, the events of Fifth Century Alexandria bring to mind recent events in the history of another major Abrahamic religion and it bears quoting:

Salt Passage Research: The State of the Art

The always-interesting and almost-always-correct Prof. Landsburg links to a very amusing social science pastiche.

Monstrous Fukuyama

Bryan Caplan catches Francis Fukuyama at his most monstrous:

I thought about the Horror File when Ron Bailey's Liberation Biology quoted Frank Fukuyama:

Life extension seems to me a perfect example of something that is a negative externality, meaning that it is individually rational and desirable for any given individual, but it has costs for society that can be negative.

I couldn't believe my eyes. Did Frank Fukuyama actually mean that when a person has another year of healthy life, the net effect on other people is negative? If so, why do people cry at funerals, instead of celebrating?

There is little to add to Caplan's evisceration of Fukuyama's attempt to justify this conclusion on the basis that death is necessary for progress, except to wonder why the advocates of the wisdom of disgust and horror so frequently feel free to make arguments which us worshipers of cold reason and rationality would reject out of hand as morally monstrous. The author of this blog—chosen pseudonym notwithstanding—is about as rationalist and—at least as far as economic, scientific, and technical matters are concerned—about as homo neophilus as it is possible to get. But even he would blanch at the price if it was causing (or even wishing for) the death of his parents, grandparents, and all other elders.