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  • On the Recovery of a Broad Vision

    A Philosophical Happy Hour reflecting on the renewed demands for broader intellectual vision amidst academic narrowing. For decades, modern education has praised specialization as the hallmark of intellectual seriousness: the disciplined acquisition of precise methods, technical vocabulary, expert competence, and increasingly narrow mastery.  No doubt, such knowledge has greatly benefitted our material existence.  But does…

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  • Science and Philosophy: In Dialogue?

    Positivism and Science A difficult and complex question in philosophy today concerns the discussion regarding the intersection and “boundaries” of the harder empirical sciences and the distinct activity of philosophical enquiry.  Given the success of scientific discovery, one temptation in the early 20th century was to claim that disciplines such as biology, chemistry, physics, and…

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  • Science & Engineering

    Ask most people today what we mean by “science” and the answers will vary, but commonly include that it is: empirical, experimental, authoritative, highly specialized, the result of intensive training, and concerned with discoveries that are precise, accurate, and actionable. One also finds the word frequently paired with “technology”—as well as “engineering” and “mathematics” (STEM).…

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  • On Modern Science and Sacred Traditions

    “Religion is anti-science.”  Jerry Coyne, Professor Emeritus of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago, once wrote the following: I’ll construe “science” as the set of tools we use to find truth about the universe, with the understanding that these truths are provisional rather than absolute.  These tools include observing nature, framing and testing…

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  • [2022 Summer] Seven Interfaces of Philosophy

    Traditional philosophical disciplines crystallized over time into a list that goes something like this: logic, cosmology, phil. anthropology, metaphysics, ethics, political philosophy and aesthetics—and, in the modern age, the hybrid and rather imperialistic enquiry known as epistemology.  Still, additional attention was demanded by issues lying both between or beyond these well-defined areas.  Thus was generated…

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