kant | Wright's Writing

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Sep 13, 2020
6 min

On how to live

When I was younger, I used to wonder: should I care what people think of me? I saw arguments on both sides of the question. And I still...

Aug 29, 2020
19 min

Thoughts on the analytic/synthetic distinction

Here's a paper I wrote long ago in which I tried to clarify some issues around the philosophical distinction between analytic and...

Aug 26, 2020
6 min

"A refutation of Kantian and Benthamite ethics"

Here's a paper from my undergraduate days, which you might find mildly interesting in its outline (and critique) of both Kantian and...

Aug 11, 2020
59 min

The relativity of values

Back in my twenties I had an intellectual and creative energy I don't have anymore. I was consumed by philosophy, jumping from topic to...

Jul 14, 2016
6 min

"Awakenings," and the power of music

[From 2008.] Reading Oliver Sacks’s Awakenings, which is about his experiences with post-encephalitic, Parkinsonian patients. It’s a good...

May 26, 2016
1 min

Various notes and excerpts

Over the years I've taken copious notes on various topics of philosophy. In case anyone is interested, I'll link to several sets of such...

May 19, 2016
12 min

Bertrand Russell, and David Hume, on philosophy

[Old notes.] Reading The Problems of Philosophy (1912) by Bertrand Russell. I’m inclined to agree with most of it. (In a lot of ways I’m...

Jan 22, 2016
3 min

On the use and abuse of “perspective” for life

[Excerpt from this book.] There are delights and dangers in adopting a broad perspective on oneself and one’s society. Looking at the...

Jan 10, 2016
5 min

The paradox of free will

[From an email.] Jerry Coyne does not impress me [in this talk], although at least he seems less irrational and annoying than Daniel...

Sep 28, 2015
2 min

Thoughts on thinkers

[Some notes I took a while ago. They may be kind of obvious, but I think it’s interesting to adopt something like Hegel’s perspective on...

Sep 10, 2015
1 min

"The human harvest"

From Peter Marin: “Kant called the realm of [human] connection the kingdom of ends. Erich Gutkind’s name for it was the absolute...

Aug 8, 2015
3 min

Excerpts on happiness

It’s a cliché but it’s worth repeating: one cause of modern loneliness is the attitude of treating people as means to an end, namely...

Apr 18, 2015
3 min

In defense of Socrates

(This is the sequel to the blog post "From the Greeks to the Enlightenment." From my book Finding Our Compass.) Nietzsche ridiculed the...

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