Edmund Husserl, the founder of the philosophical tradition called phenomenology, introduced the idea of bracketing or suspending our habitual assumptions about the world. He called this method by the Greek word epoché, which has deep historical roots stretching to the ancient Greek philosophy of scepticism that emphasised suspension of judgments. Importantly for Husserl, his method … Continue reading Can We Suspend Our Assumptions?
Heraclitus Meets Derrida and Saunders: Misunderstanding and Oversimplification
Misunderstandings are one of the typical features of being human. We can be confident in declaring that every person who has ever lived has misunderstood others and was misunderstood by others at least once in life. This reveals the interpretive structure of our thinking and the fundamental role understanding plays in our lives. Understanding is … Continue reading Heraclitus Meets Derrida and Saunders: Misunderstanding and Oversimplification
Is Transhumanism Very Human?
"Transhumanism, social and philosophical movement devoted to promoting the research and development of robust human-enhancement technologies. Such technologies would augment or increase human sensory reception, emotive ability, or cognitive capacity as well as radically improve human health and extend human life spans. Such modifications resulting from the addition of biological or physical technologies would be … Continue reading Is Transhumanism Very Human?
Self-Knowledge Through Justification
How do you know that you know something? When does a belief or opinion become knowledge? Often an intuitive response to this is - when I can offer justification, proof, for my belief. Justification seems to play a silent but crucial role in our understanding of what counts as knowledge. However, there is more. When you justify … Continue reading Self-Knowledge Through Justification
It Is OK to Feel Good
Photo by Evie Shaffer from Pexels It is OK to feel good. Sounds so obvious and self-explanatory that one doesn't need to be reminded of it. Of course, it is OK to feel good, who doubts that? Who doesn't know that? Well, at times some of us forget about it. I know it from experience. It happens when … Continue reading It Is OK to Feel Good
Intuitive Beliefs, Cups, and Worldviews
I like a nice cup of good black tea. In fact, one such cup stands in front of me just now as I am typing this. I do not have any doubts about it, I do not need to reflect on it to establish whether it is indeed so. There it is - my cup … Continue reading Intuitive Beliefs, Cups, and Worldviews
Be Ready to Drop Your Assumptions
This last weekend I was working on my first academic philosophy writing, an essay on Hume's views of the "self". He was a convinced empiricist and was sceptical about rationalism and its assumption that we can know things based on and thanks to our reason alone. Hume thought that the only way we can develop … Continue reading Be Ready to Drop Your Assumptions
Getting Our Assumptions Clear
Recently I had an interesting conversation over lunch with a few colleagues, all of us with many years of experience in the same industry. Initially it all went the usual way - we complained about the lack of demand for our products and how the clients didn't understand the real value of these products. The … Continue reading Getting Our Assumptions Clear
Automatic Misunderstandings and how to avoid them
There is nothing new about it - people misunderstand each other regularly, we all know it and we all do it. However, recently I have been reminded just how easily we fall into the simplest traps of misunderstandings. So easily that when we realize it afterwards (if we do), we are surprised to the extent … Continue reading Automatic Misunderstandings and how to avoid them
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