Top News, Articles, and Interviews in Philosophy

Gödel Without Tears, slowly, 16

23. September 2020 Philosophy News News
Today’s chapter is optimistically entitled ‘Proving the Second Incompleteness Theorem’. Of course we don’t actually do that! But we do say something more about what it takes to prove it (stating the so-called derivability conditions, and saying what it takes … Continue reading → The post Gödel Without Tears, slowly, 16 appeared first on Logic [More]
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Politics in the Age of the Coronavirus. What can we learn from the Italian Elections?

22. September 2020 Philosophy News News
 Sep 20, 2020. The president of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, votes at the Italian regional elections. In these elections, the first in the age of the COVID, the victory went to the Left largely by means of over a better strategy in managing people's perceptions of the epidemic. Here, I report some personal considerations on how this result may tell us something about the coming US presidential election.  The regional elections of this weekend in Italy were held after a debate still dominated by the COVID epidemics. Although the virus itself was not mentioned so much in the speeches and in the political programs, the rest of the debate was shallow and lacking ideas on both sides. The Left was unable to propose anything better than "restarting growth," and the Right little more than vague talks of "Italexit." So, the COVID epidemic hovered like a ghost over everything that was said and done. The Left coalition, the parties supporting the current government, had placed their bets on appearing tough on the epidemic. The government-controlled media tried to reinforce this perception by doing their best to terrorize citizens with daily catastrophistic reports. This strategy had a risk: if the elderly were to stay at home for fear of being infected at the polling station, then a disaster was looming for those parties that relied on their vote: in particular the Democratic Party (the former communists). The Right, instead, never found a coherent strategy on the [More]
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A tribute to the fallen

22. September 2020 Philosophy News News
President Trump is reliably reported to have referred to soldiers who have fallen in battle as “losers” and “suckers.” Supposedly, on November 10, 2018, he refused to visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery and Memorial, outside Paris. It was raining and he feared his hair would get mussed. On hearing this—reported in the Atlantic magazine—I was totally surprised […] The post A tribute to the fallen appeared first on OUPblog.         Related StoriesHow protecting human rights can help us increase our Global Health ImpactWilliam Sanders Scarborough and the enduring legacy of black classical scholarshipThe reconversion of Hagia Sophia in [More]
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Gödel Without Tears, slowly, Interlude

21. September 2020 Philosophy News News
Today’s short episode is a second ‘Interlude’, separating the chapters on the first incompleteness theorem from the final three chapters on the second theorem. But it mentions (or at least, gestures at) enough interesting points for it to be worth … Continue reading → The post Gödel Without Tears, slowly, Interlude appeared first on Logic [More]
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RBG’s Replacement

21. September 2020 Philosophy News News
After Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s death, Republicans claimed Obama did not have the right to appoint a replacement and this should be left to the next President.  The justified their view by asserting that because Scalia died in early February 2016 Obama had slightly less than one year left in office. Since the Republicans [More]
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