Top all-time · #2752
Edward Feser
Personal blog · edwardfeser.blogspot.comphilosophyscience
Edward Feser's personal blog at edwardfeser.blogspot.com covers philosophy and science. Since 2015, 27 different Hacker News readers have linked it 195 times, most often “Artificial Intelligence and Magical Thinking”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-27, and you can follow it by feed.
"One of the best contemporary writers on philosophy" National Review "A terrific writer" Damian Thompson, Daily Telegraph "Feser... has the rare and enviable gift of making philosophical argument compulsively readable" Sir Anthony Kenny, Times Literary Supplem
Most-linked posts?
- Artificial Intelligence and Magical Thinking6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2019-03-30
- Artificial intelligence and magical thinking (2019)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-04-01
- Gödel and the unreality of time3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2018-05-05
- /2011/01/against-neurobabble.html2 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2019-01-03
- /2010/11/anselms-ontological-argument.html2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2023-12-24
- The metaphysical presuppositions of formal logic2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-07-16
- /2022/03/chomskys-propaganda-model-of-mass-media.html2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-03-16
- Multiverses and Falsifiability2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-06-06
- Fallacies physicists fall for2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-07-21
- Hume, science, and religion (2009(2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2015-09-21
What Hacker News says?
Punishment does work. What do you imagine instead? Nothing? Quoting [0]: First, that punishment has three purposes – retribution, rehabilitation, and deterrence – does not entail that each of these purposes must be realized in a given act of punishment in order for that act to be morally legitimate. For example, we may justly imprison a recidivist thief even if we know from experience that he is extremely unlikely t…
Comment linking /2011/10/on-rehabilitation-and-execution.html
on “Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison”Submitted Gödel and the unreality of time as a story · 196 points
HN discussionApropos: http://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/2015/02/accept-no-imitations...
Comment linking /2015/02/accept-no-imitations.html
on “Superintelligence: The Idea That Eats Smart People”Submitted The metaphysical presuppositions of formal logic as a story · 89 points
HN discussion> To then reason from that fact to the existence of a multiverse or the existence of God is an extra step that one need not take, but not taking either of those steps doesn't invalidate the appearance that the fundamental constants of the universe were fine tuned for the production of complexity/life. I will add that, from a classical theological point of view, watchmaker type arguments are considered quite weak [0]…
Comment linking /2011/03/thomism-versus-design-argument.html
on “Inside the proton, the ‘most complicated thing you could possibly imagine’”Submitted Curiosity damned the cat as a story · 55 points
HN discussion"Andrew Sullivan calls our attention to epidemiologist Tara C. Smith, who moves with that curious herd of 'experts' suddenly not terribly concerned about social distancing when the protesters filling the streets are left-wing rather than right-wing. Writes Sullivan: 'The message to normies: going outside is killing grandma. The message to woke kids: never mind!' "So which is it? Were people like Smith lying before a…
Comment linking /2020/06/what-science-is-saying-this-week.html
on “America is giving up on the pandemic?”Submitted Anti-reductionism in Nyāya-Vaiśesika atomism as a story · 43 points
HN discussionOkay, so intentionality is essential to information. Let's take your example of the pixels on your screen. There is nothing intrinsic to those pixels or that arrangement of pixels that points to the state of your brain. That doesn't mean there isn't a causal history the effect of which are those physical pixel states. It is, however, entirely a matter of convention how those pixels are arranged by the designers and…
Comment linking /2010/08/fodors-trinity.html
on “A man who can read letters but not numbers exposes roots of consciousness”Submitted The Trouble with Capitalism as a story · 33 points
HN discussionOne response: > In particular, the critic owes us an account of why, since physics cannot in principle capture all there is to physical reality in the first place -- and in particular arguably fails entirely (as Russell held) to capture causality in general -- we should regard it as especially noteworthy if it fails to capture causality in one particular case. If the critic, like the early Russell, denies that there…
Comment linking /2012/05/oerter-contra-principle-of-causality.html
on “I don't know, Timmy, being God is a big responsibility (2007)”Submitted Problems for Goff’s Panpsychism as a story · 27 points
HN discussion> Another, more subtle justification for the Butlerian Jihad is also found in Frank Herbert's original novels, specifically Heidegger's thesis that the use of technology trains humans to think like machines. Mechanistic thinking started a few centuries back: > The historian of science E.J. Dijksterhuis memorably characterized the scientific revolution of the early modern period as a “mechanization of the world pictu…
Comment linking /2026/06/what-is-mechanical-world-picture.html
on “Butlerian Jihad”Submitted The Problem with the "Hard Problem" as a story · 23 points
HN discussionThis is by Graham Oppy. He and Edward Feser, a Cahtholic philosopher / philosophy professor, recent had two online discussions on theology. YouTube links on Feser's site: * https://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/2019/07/debate-with-graham-... * https://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/2020/02/discussion-with-gra... There's a lot of 'bad atheism' out there: folks who attack straw man arguments and get basic things wrong (most of t…
Comment linking /2020/02/discussion-with-graham-oppy.html
on “Cambridge University Press make their books free until May”Submitted The hollow universe of modern physics as a story · 22 points
HN discussionI don't know how neuroscientists fare wrt knowledge of biology, chemistry, etc. that is relevant to their field, but the real problem is when they wade into philosophical waters without the requisite philosophical chops or background to do so [0]. Others can be guilty of similar sins, of course, and since the early 20th century, when philosophy and the classical liberal arts in general evaporated from school curricu…
Comment linking /2011/01/against-neurobabble.html
on “Scientists uncover how the brain washes itself during sleep”Submitted Confucian Hylemorphism as a story · 17 points
HN discussionYou start getting into 'no true Scotsman' arguments at this point. Is the only "true" Christianity that which professes the Nicene Creed? Teaches the Real Presence? Other? However, just because the Mormons are using the same words (from the same book) does not necessarily mean that they have the same theological concepts: > This brings me to an example which does involve error of a sort sufficient to make successful…
Comment linking /2015/12/christians-muslims-and-reference-of-god.html
on “Choose your status game wisely”Submitted Feyerabend on empiricism and sola scriptura as a story · 15 points
HN discussion"The road from libertarianism" [0] [0] https://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-road-from-liber...
Comment linking /2012/08/the-road-from-libertarianism.html
on “China declares cryptocurrency deals ‘illegal’”Submitted Why are (some) physicists so bad at philosophy? (2011) as a story · 12 points
HN discussion> Even today plenty of Christian sects refuse to recognize the council of Nicaea's interpretation of the trinity, including the Mormons and the Jehovah's witnesses In some ways the (English) word "God" has become 'overloaded' over time: * https://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/2015/12/christians-muslims-... And that's not even getting into "god": * https://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/2011/04/further-thought-on-...
Comment linking /2011/04/further-thought-on-one-god-further.html
on “Silver amulet is the oldest evidence of Christianity north of the Alps”Submitted How (some of) your professors see you (2009) as a story · 8 points
HN discussionThe article was an entertaining read. However, it contains a few errors. First, Spinoza was not an atheist. He was a pantheist. He identified nature/universe with God and tried to overcome the infamous "mind"/matter duality posed by Descartes by claiming that both were but aspects of the infinite substance, namely, God. That is, he subscribed to a certain panpsychism. Comparisons to Buddhism are actually very superf…
Comment linking /2009/06/hume-science-and-religion.html
on “How David Hume Helped Solve My Midlife Crisis”Submitted The road from atheism as a story · 8 points
HN discussionNeuroscience suffers from a rigor problem[0] Sure, you can make observations, even good observations, but these can be lodged within a mushy, interpretive bed of sloppy speculation, bad philosophy, and unexamined assumptions. For starters, what is intelligence? Because defined one way, you could attribute it to virtually anything that responds to the environment in some way. Against mechanistic presuppositions, you'…
Comment linking /2011/01/against-neurobabble.html
on “Intelligence Evolved at Least Twice in Vertebrate Animals”Submitted Ioannidis on the Politicization of Science as a story · 6 points
HN discussion> It was taken for granted by philosophers, that an "infinite regression" is a logical fallacy (e.g., used in a proof by Thomas Aquinas)... Aquinas specifically objected to the notion of an essentially ordered infinite causal series. He had no objection to an accidentally ordered infinite causal series or other kinds of infinite series. This distinction is extremely important for the purposes of understanding his pr…
Comment linking /2010/08/edwards-on-infinite-causal-series.html
on “0.999...= 1”Submitted The sexual revolution devours its children as a story · 6 points
HN discussion
