Philosophical Sketches

I crave to be with others because without “others” there is no “I.” That I am (identity) is a statistical-functional position within the deontic-inferential network of (in)compatibilities. To be is to be contrasted, for to be here-now is to be not there-then. I need you by me to be next to whom I am. I need the whole grid on which I emerge as a coordinate. Naturally, the cogito that I am strives to be attached to my surroundings, for otherwise it will be staring at a void. But what is staring if there is nothing to stare at after all? Alas, everything eventually evaporates into the air, and we shed tears because nothing stays forever. As the wise says, “No man ever steps in the same river twice.” Constantly, we drink of Lethe, ramble through the wilderness, to quench our thirst, to rise from one slumber to another, all the while what we feel close to are ever being distanced from us. In our hands are configurations of particulars, collections of ashes. So they will leave us again and ...

Psychological terms such as ‘belief’ and ‘desire’ are terms we use to describe facts  about ourselves. If so, what are we describing by these terms? What are these facts that we describe in terms of psychological states? What is it for something to be a belief or a desire? Here is a brief reflection specifically on belief. Naturally, one may start with the specific feeling they have when it occurs to them that they are in the state of believing, whatever believing may be. Psychological concepts such as BELIEF and DESIRE are folk-concepts. That is, through linguistic and social upbringings, we learn to use these concepts without necessarily knowing exactly what these concepts are referring to. Similarly, physical concepts such as HARDNESS are folk-concepts, and we learn to use them without necessarily knowing that hardness consists in certain configurations or dynamics of subatomic particles. It is only through theoretical physics do we come to understand what hardness really is. G...