University of Cape Town

Graduate Student, Philosophy

Thesis Title: Whether God Exists and Whether It Matters

About

Qualifications:

HdipEd (Phys.Sci), BA (Psych, Phil), BA Hons (Phil), MA (Phil) (University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa).

Currently reading for PhD at Cape Town, formerly at Edinburgh.

About me:

I am interested in most things, as you might deduce from my research interests. The list that I have represents my informal interests.

My primary interests, philosophically speaking, are philosophy of mind, agency, and the existence of God. Secondary to that, perhaps, metaphilosophy of ethics.

I trained as a high school science teacher, which is why I find so many of the science areas interesting.

Really, I see knowledge as a large, interconnected system. I am very interested, therefore, in astrophysics (because it relates to the question of the cosmological argument for the existence of God), biology and evolution (because of the Intelligent Design question), free-will (because of the Problem of Evil), philosophy of mind (because of the same, and AI), computer programming (I program PHP for a living). And so naturally, I see the link from Boolean logic to formal logic in Philosophy, as well as to computers. In fact, I've understood Boolean truth tables since I was 13, and first read philosophy at 14.

I'm also interested in politics and racism, hence, Naziism, and its foundation in mythology. From this derived my interest in anthropology, which is obviously related to my interest in the Existence of God, and then also to Linguistics. Consequently I understand or can get the gist of most written Romance or Germanic languages, including ancient forms. I'm particularly interested in OE/Anglo Saxon, and tribal migratory patterns in Europe.

Lastly, chemistry determines neuropsychology and biology, and arises from Particle Physics, and neuropsych has relevance for philosophy of mind, the nature of the soul, and hence, the existence of the spiritual. I do not consider myself an expert in these areas; merely conversant.

I consider myself fortunate to have been compelled, by various circumstances, into studying such a wide range of topics, because it has left me with a very broad view of the world and how our ideas relate to the facts.

Where "truth" versus "instrumentalism" and "power" are concerned, I'll lay my cards on the table here and say I'm a structuralist realist, i.e. I stand with the scientists who think they're finding facts. I consider postmodernism to be a Continental form of relativism, (as opposed to relativity, which is unrelated), and thus, a circular form of reasoning.

Quick summary in technical terms: Knowledge is: justified true belief which is not coincidentally known/believed. "True" is "corresponding regularly to physically detectable entities or measurable events, which said events or entities regularly covary with the relevant propositions". You can quote me on that. I'm sympathetic to Popper and dislike Kuhn and Feyerabend.

On the Philosophy of Mind debate: I think human behaviour can be covered by scientific laws, however, I suspect those laws will be formulated by Chaos Theorists, not Quantum Mechanics - we're not random. I'm not an eliminativist about the mental but I'm sympathetic to the view, so I prefer to be known as a epiphenomenalist, a view which I believe I share with Dennett, who is probably my favourite modern writer.

I enjoy Nietzsche, but like he himself, recognise that he is quite mad. I'm an ethical skeptic or naturalist, but more skeptical, and an aesthetic relativist to a large extent; I believe however that we share some aesthetic agreements on form, whether expressed musically or spatially.

Politically I'm more sympathetic to Plato than Rousseau or even worse, J.S. Mill. Metaphysically speaking, I'm a complete skeptic, thinking that Dretske's concept of "analog experiences" pretty much explains metaphysics away. I have a particular dislike for Kant. I always feel like I have wasted my time reading him. I far prefer Hume, and had the honour of attending his university in Scotland, and standing at the feet of his statue, and visiting his grave.

Contact Information