Introduction:
It turns out that watching cinema classics, several decades after their release is a curiously underwhelming experience :)

This weekend, Deepak, Ravi & I relaxed by watching "Pulp Fiction"[1] for the 1st time. We found it OK but not great. It was reminiscent of another experience I had a couple of months back when my buddy ( Read more... )

Introduction

I’m an atheist (as are several of my friends). But as human beings, despite differences in our beliefs, all of us face the struggle of trying to find meaning in our lives.

hardblue 's post about "Keeping the Church and forgetting God", reminded me of the philosopher John Cottingham, who argues that belief, in a God or a theology is not the most ( Read more... )

Introduction

Karl Popper is one of the best known Philosophers of Science. Some of the reasons for his popularity is because his central idea:

1. is an elegant way to solve the demarcation problem;
2. has been widely embraced by the scientific community.

We'll deal with the second point first because it's easier to explain than the first point. See, Popper ( Read more... )

Introduction

Induction underlies science & much of what we think it means to be rational. Predictably when this notion gets punctured we get surprised that we're no better than the fundamentalist chumps we laugh at/feel sorry for :)

This post will present the other attempts to answer Hume's Riddle of Induction. I will not be giving the plot away by ( Read more... )

Introduction

I had a discussion with V, about the Problem of Induction, over drinks last weekend. A staple of undergraduate Philosophy classes, this riddle, originally thought up by the Philosopher David Hume, has found its way into the domain of general public discourse.

Most of this material was taken from a Philosopher named, Jeffrey Kasser's ( Read more... )

Introduction
At least once a week, I hook up with friends @ the bar & have a discussion for a few hours, over whiskey & cigars.

This week the topic was: "Where (not) to invest your money - Beware of Mutual Funds" This post distills the main points of our discussion.

Motivation
Building a nest-egg that can keep us comfortable when we retire is a tough ( Read more... )

Introduction

Snobbery & Contempt tend to be frowned upon in society. But law professor, William Ian Miller, of U Mich., has an interesting take on it - Mutual contempt is actually the life-blood of democracy!

You don't have to be a student of Political Science in order to enjoy his provocative & enjoyable prose. Below, are my notes.

"Let me tell you ( Read more... )

This post’s about a simple idea which occurs in the context of: terrorism, detective stories; & Management (to name a few areas). It's called the Fundamental Attribution Error, also called Correspondence Bias (CB).
Those who studied Psychology 101 would be familiar with CB. Here, we're going to use it to understand:

• Why terrorism is a poor ( Read more... )

A book on bullshit?!

When I heard that there was a Philosophy book about bullshit, my first reaction was to groan & think it as yet another example of philosophical navel-gazing.

However, I was intrigued when I learned that it was written by Harry Frankfurt. This is because I know him to be a level headed fellow, compared to other philosophers. ( Read more... )

Idiocy

Today, Obama went ahead & signed a brain-dead law that makes Indian IT firms pay for USA's border fence with Mexico. He's essentially hiking in H1B visa processing fees for Indian citizens who work in the USA.

I guess, all them Indians who patted themselves on the back for supporting Obama during his election must be feeling really clever ( Read more... )