Philosophy

Who’s Responsible for Free Will?

by Marc Merlin December 22, 2012

By Riley Zeller-Townson (Atlanta Science Tavern Contributor) Neuroethics is an interdisciplinary field that attempts to understand the ethical implications of neuroscience research. And within Neuroethics, “Free will” is a battleground. About 30 years ago, neuroscientist Benjamin Libet led a study where the researchers were able to predict when human volunteers would press a button – [...]

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Collaborative Research in the Humanities

by Christopher Long June 16, 2012

Let me begin with a kind of provocation: however critical we humanists are of the ideals of authorial authority and genius, our practices of scholarship and the ways they gain legitimacy in the academy continue, even in this digital age, to be rooted in those outmoded 19th century ideals. Edgar Allan Poe gives voice to [...]

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On Vessels Filled and Fires Kindled

by Christopher Long May 16, 2012

“The mind,” Plutarch is said to have said, “is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.” This pithy formulation seems to have been distilled at some point from Plutarch’s lecture, entitled On Listening to Lectures, in which, as the Loeb translation has it, he writes: For the mind does not require [...]

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On Swans, Death and Philosophy

by Christopher Long March 23, 2012

There is a poignant moment about half way through the Phaedo, that eloquent dialogue depicting the death of Socrates, when Socrates likens himself to swans who sing most beautifully when they realize they must die. Socrates considers their’s a song of joy, for they anticipate joining the god, Apollo, whose servants they are. But most [...]

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Beginning in Wonder

by Christopher Long December 17, 2011

By Christopher Long (W&M Regular Contributor) I endeavor to practice philosophy, and philosophy begins in wonder. Aristotle puts it well toward the beginning of the Metaphysics: For it is through wondering that human-beings both now and at first began to philosophize, wondering first about the strange things close at hand, and then little by little [...]

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