I am posting today from the beautiful hills of the Tuscany region of Italy and I am about to start a 20 day spiritual retreat with teacher Andrew Cohen. During my travels here I decided to read something aligned to the more spiritual side of American Philosophy. And so, I have been reading about the [...]
All posts for the month July, 2009
Is Freewill compatable with Determinism? Some thoughts on Jonathan Edwards
Posted by Jeff Carreira on July 25, 2009
http://evolutionaryphilosophy.com/2009/07/25/is-freewill-compatable-with-determinism-some-thoughts-on-jonathan-edwards/
William James, B.F. Skinner and the Stream of Consciousness Revisited
In an earlier post I described similarities between the ideas of John Dewey and B.F. Skinner, I now will to do the same with William James. Both James and Skinner dubbed their own philosophies “Radical.” James called his philosophy Radical Empiricism and Skinner called his Radical Behaviorism. And both used the term in part for [...]
Posted by Jeff Carreira on July 23, 2009
http://evolutionaryphilosophy.com/2009/07/23/william-james-b-f-skinner-and-the-stream-of-consciousness-revisited/
Is there any Intelligence in the Universe?
I have been reading more about Behaviorism, including the article that Carl sent us by Robert Epstein, so that we could get a little clearer here about exactly what we are looking into. Maybe I will start with a few definitions of some of the basic learning mechanisms of Behaviorism. Classical Conditioning – Pavlov’s dog: [...]
Posted by Jeff Carreira on July 20, 2009
http://evolutionaryphilosophy.com/2009/07/20/is-there-intelligence-in-the-universe/
Freewill, To Believe or Not To Believe
I saw that both Carl and Brian noticed my use of the phrase “caved in” in expressing the fact that I was not convinced about the Behaviorist view. There is so much fantastic insight in all of the comments that have gone up from all of you, but I wanted first to use this phrase [...]
Posted by Jeff Carreira on July 16, 2009
http://evolutionaryphilosophy.com/2009/07/16/freewill-to-believe-or-not-to-believe/
The Freewill of a Creative System
I am amazed by all of the insightful comments on my last post. It seems that many of us are comfortable with the idea that perhaps freewill is not a characteristic of an individual, but is somehow implied in the system of the individual and its environment. This is what Carl (our behaviorist commentor) has [...]
Posted by Jeff Carreira on July 13, 2009
http://evolutionaryphilosophy.com/2009/07/13/the-freewill-of-creative-systems/
The Indignity of B.F. Skinner
Warning: This post represents my very first thoughts about the Behaviorism of B.F. Skinner and is probably equally likely to offend both fans and foes alike. Those who follow this blog may realize that my friend and brilliant commentor Carl has got me reading B.F. Skinner. Skinner is the famous (and to some infamous) Harvard [...]
Posted by Jeff Carreira on July 9, 2009
http://evolutionaryphilosophy.com/2009/07/09/the-indignity-of-b-f-skinner/
The Modern Problem of Goodness
American philosophy was a product of the Modern Age that had its precursor with the Italian Renaissance and its birth with the European Enlightenment. The Modern Age is characterized by the development of human reason as the dominant force shaping human life. It was during this time that science and the scientific method of analysis [...]
Posted by Jeff Carreira on July 5, 2009
http://evolutionaryphilosophy.com/2009/07/05/the-modern-problem-of-goodness/
