tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78017938072986823202011-09-25T11:40:52.697-07:00A Mathematics GleamI am a congenital amateur of philosophy, puzzles and other brainy things. Enjoy. Or not.Austin Dugganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01139627413173411514noreply@blogger.comBlogger161100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7801793807298682320.post-2640484655472374912011-09-25T11:40:00.001-07:002011-09-25T11:40:52.795-07:00Satisfaction, Frustration and Desire: a Defense of Higher-Order Dispositional Theories of Value<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>Austin Dugganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01139627413173411514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7801793807298682320.post-3884465591522786942011-09-25T11:31:00.001-07:002011-09-25T11:33:08.547-07:00A Critique of Bernard Williams’ Critique of Utilitarianism
<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>Austin Dugganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01139627413173411514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7801793807298682320.post-20934197105783120912011-06-06T13:44:00.000-07:002011-06-06T13:51:29.148-07:00Bipartite Happiness: a Hybrid View of Well-Being (an extremely rough draft)What is non-instrumentally good for a person? Hedonists claim that it’s only pleasure and the absence of pain. Desire-fulfillment theorists claim that it’s only the satisfaction of some class of desires. Objective-list theorists claim that attaining, in some sense, a number of objective goods is necessary and sufficient for well-being. In the following sections I briefly outline objections Austin Dugganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01139627413173411514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7801793807298682320.post-85693886282630044282011-04-18T11:45:00.000-07:002011-04-18T11:45:46.787-07:00Defeasible Oughts and Unjustified Blame: a Critical Examination of Kant’s Third Antinomy.
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Austin Dugganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01139627413173411514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7801793807298682320.post-32871743975018140612011-04-18T11:32:00.001-07:002011-04-18T11:32:19.876-07:00Truth and Deliberation: an Argument against Aristotle’s Fatalist
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Austin Dugganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01139627413173411514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7801793807298682320.post-81693338544518232612009-12-27T22:46:00.001-08:002009-12-27T22:46:12.961-08:00Spinozan Semi-Compatibilism and a Defense of Causal IrrationalityEpistemic Uncertainty as Contingency: Spinozan Semi-Compatibilism "Experience teaches us no less clearly than reason," says Spinoza, "that men believe themselves to be free, simply because they are conscious of their actions, and unconscious of the causes whereby those actions are determined…" For Spinoza, we live in a modally rigid universe. In this sense, it is more clear "than the midday Austin Dugganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01139627413173411514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7801793807298682320.post-22357185851241912632009-12-23T23:01:00.001-08:002009-12-23T23:01:42.772-08:00Compatibilist Revisionism as a Problem in the Philosophy of Mind<!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>Austin Dugganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01139627413173411514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7801793807298682320.post-62518146885823878212009-11-03T21:39:00.001-08:002009-11-03T21:39:40.297-08:00John Locke's Theory of Personal Identity<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>Austin Dugganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01139627413173411514noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7801793807298682320.post-32668483414352169072009-09-12T11:06:00.000-07:002009-09-12T11:08:53.781-07:00Chisholm's Agent-Causation<!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>Austin Dugganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01139627413173411514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7801793807298682320.post-7787351223644136052008-11-30T16:50:00.000-08:002010-01-11T10:57:01.699-08:00Fashion Over FunctionMy clock is not strictly defined by its gears and springs. Instead, it is defined by what it does. As long as its internal states fill a causal role so that a certain input (the correct time now) yields the appropriate output (the correct time for days to come), then it could be made of microchips, rolling balls, legos, pressure valves and all other sorts of things. What about human minds? There Austin Dugganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01139627413173411514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7801793807298682320.post-4539313204461503262008-07-16T16:28:00.001-07:002008-07-16T16:43:14.559-07:00Puzzle series 1 through 3Click any puzzle to see a high-res jpegAustin Dugganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01139627413173411514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7801793807298682320.post-44576035796317808372008-07-16T16:25:00.000-07:002010-01-21T15:05:50.796-08:00Instructions to the puzzlesYou may consult and/or use any substance on earth other than another functioning human brain. You may take as much time as you need. Each question mark represents only one reasonable possibility. Those unable to draw may answer visual problems with a simple description such as "grey box, black border, upside-down y symbol." Traditional analogies such as "shoe is to foot as glove is to hand" will Austin Dugganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01139627413173411514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7801793807298682320.post-78524769758269012052008-07-16T16:22:00.000-07:002008-07-16T16:25:12.336-07:00Bubbles PuzzleA Harvard medical professor recently relayed a message to me. "Your puzzles are impossible." This is not at all the case. One of my more difficult puzzles was recently solved (see my blog "anatomy puzzle") and there are a few that have been solved more or less instantly by people, mostly artists, who have a wide associative horizon coupled with advanced logic skills, however informal they might Austin Dugganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01139627413173411514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7801793807298682320.post-66487197160709666292008-07-16T16:20:00.000-07:002008-07-16T16:21:25.477-07:00Head PuzzleAustin Dugganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01139627413173411514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7801793807298682320.post-53331332881042890302008-07-16T16:06:00.000-07:002008-07-16T16:20:39.869-07:00Head puzzle (answer)Can't figure it out. Need some instructions." My father's response to the puzzle "Anatomy" was not uncommon. In fact, it is typical to all my puzzles. No one seems to realize that figuring out what to do is the puzzle. It's a completely absurd response. Did Descartes ask for instructions when he invented geometry? Still, I wanted to help. "We are privileged" I said to my father, "in that we get Austin Dugganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01139627413173411514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7801793807298682320.post-1336948547398221072007-08-10T16:52:00.000-07:002007-08-10T17:20:48.478-07:00The Sequence Puzzle The puzzle “Spatial 2,” which has caused confusion to the point of inimical silence, consists of two disparate sequences. One is a seven-space color sequence implanted into a nifty-but-meaningless design, and the other is a five-space shape sequence. The following is both an account of how I interpret this puzzle, citing various mistakes that have been made in the past, and a commentary Austin Dugganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01139627413173411514noreply@blogger.com0