• Globalization and the digital revolution are transforming human civilization in unprecedented ways, in large measure via innovation as well as imposition of emergent technologies on growing numbers of consumers. While these transformations confer undeniable benefits to humanity, the benefits are bundled with a corresponding set of detriments. This paper does not contest the benefits, but confronts the detriments. It appeals to humanities therapy as a remedy for many of the cognate problems exper…Read more
  •  16
    Philosophical Counseling
    In Lee McIntyre, Nancy McHugh & Ian Olasov (eds.), A Companion to Public Philosophy, Wiley. 2022.
    Philosophical counseling is an educational activity in which philosophers engage in dialogue with clients who wish to address questions or manage problems that arise during the course of everyday life. This chapter offers three contrasting perspectives on the question of what philosophical counselors do: first, an institutional scope of practice for philosophical counseling; second, an anecdotal list of common issues for which clients seek philosophical counseling; and third, a heterogeneous set…Read more
  •  3
    Thus Spake Settembrini: A Meta-Dialogue on Philosophy and Psychiatry
    In Thomas Schramme & Johannes Thome (eds.), Philosophy and Psychiatry, De Gruyter. pp. 27-49. 2003.
  •  5
    Of Coconuts and Beings: Peculiarities of a Diophantine Problem
    The Philosophy of Humor Yearbook 3 (1): 253-270. 2022.
    This paper reconsiders a well-known Diophantine problem-“the coconut puzzle”-with two philosophically humorous motives. The first motive is methodological; the second, ontological. First, different methodological approaches to solving this problem, namely those of the stereotypical engineer, physicist, and mathematician, are informed by different conceptualizations of the mathematical puzzle itself. This is illustrated by comparing stereotypical solutions by an engineer, a physicist, and a mathe…Read more
  •  1
    The article’s purpose is to illustrate ways in which renowned philosophers, statesmen, and poets—as well as family members and friends of this author—utilized humor to express fearlessness of or contempt for death, or indeed to mock others’ fears of dying or tendencies to treat death too seriously. If Sigmund Freud was correct in hypothesizing that humor is the ego’s defense against life’s affronts, and if death poses the greatest possible affront to life, then jokes about death are the stronges…Read more
  •  6
    On Human Conflict excavates the philosophical foundations of war and peace in order to determine whether wars can ever be ended. It ranges over relevant mathematical models, Hobbes’s natural philosophy, theories of causality, biological and cultural evolution, general systems theory, Buddhism, globalization, and futurology.
  •  43
    Journal of the APPA
    with Nancy Matchett, Kate Mehuron, Greg Goode, and Thomas Griffith
    Philosophical Practice 4. 2009-2014.
  • Robert J. Geis, Personal Existence After Death (review)
    Philosophy in Review 16 396-397. 1996.
  • Jody Azzouni, Metaphysical Myths, Mathematical Practice (review)
    Philosophy in Review 15 156-158. 1995.
  • International Studies in the Philosophy of Science
    with Lars Bergstrom, John Forge, John Leslie, and Sami Pihlstrom
    International Studies in the Philosophy of Science: Isps 10 187. 1996.
  •  3
    Robert J. Geis, Personal Existence After Death Reviewed by
    Philosophy in Review 16 (6): 396-397. 1996.
  • Exploitation in the Prisoner's Dilemma
    In Peter Danielson (ed.), Modeling Rationality, Morality, and Evolution, Oxford University Press. pp. 7--161. 1998.
  •  51
    How braess' paradox solves newcomb's problem: Not!
    International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 10 (3). 1996.
    Abstract In an engaging and ingenious paper, Irvine (1993) purports to show how the resolution of Braess? paradox can be applied to Newcomb's problem. To accomplish this end, Irvine forges three links. First, he couples Braess? paradox to the Cohen?Kelly queuing paradox. Second, he couples the Cohen?Kelly queuing paradox to the Prisoner's Dilemma (PD). Third, in accord with received literature, he couples the PD to Newcomb's problem itself. Claiming that the linked models are ?structurally ident…Read more
  •  134
    The inapplicability of evolutionarily stable strategy to the prisoner's dilemma
    British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 41 (4): 461-472. 1990.
    Hamilton games-theoretic conflict model, which applies Maynard Smith's concept of evolutionarily stable strategy to the Prisoner's Dilemma, gives rise to an inconsistency between theoretical prescription and empirical results. Proposed resolutions of thisproblem are incongruent with the tenets of the models involved. The independent consistency of each model is restored, and the anomaly thereby circumvented, by a proof that no evolutionarily stable strategy exists in the Prisoner's Dilemma.
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  •  120
    A resolution of Bertrand's paradox
    Philosophy of Science 61 (1): 1-24. 1994.
    Bertrand's random-chord paradox purports to illustrate the inconsistency of the principle of indifference when applied to problems in which the number of possible cases is infinite. This paper shows that Bertrand's original problem is vaguely posed, but demonstrates that clearly stated variations lead to different, but theoretically and empirically self-consistent solutions. The resolution of the paradox lies in appreciating how different geometric entities, represented by uniformly distributed …Read more
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    Who can counsel?
    The Philosophers' Magazine 19 23-26. 2002.
  •  93
    What Philosophical Counseling Can’t Do
    Philosophy in the Contemporary World 5 (4): 33-41. 1998.
    Notwithstanding recent successes of philosophical counseling, which appear to be leading to its legitimization as a professional practice in America and abroad, many forces concen to condition its emergent structure and function. This paper briefly elucidates some of the influences to which philosophical counseling is subject, that lie beyond its unilateral control. These include its portayal by the media to the public, its scope of practice, its relations with psychology and psychiatry, its for…Read more
  • Debate: Who Can Counsel?
    with Christian Perring
    The Philosophers’ Magazine. forthcoming.
  •  41
    Who can counsel?
    The Philosophers' Magazine 19 23-26. 2002.
  •  31
    The PC tyranny
    The Philosophers' Magazine 14 47-49. 2001.
  • Winning Habits (review)
    Philosophical Practice 5 (1): 600-602. 2010.
  •  6
    The PC tyranny
    The Philosophers' Magazine 14 47-49. 2001.
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    Conversation 1: waking up to our inner strength -- Conversation 2: family education and parental recollections -- Conversation 3: philosophy and the will to encourage -- Conversation 4: a life of robust optimism -- Conversation 5: start from our shared humanity -- Conversation 6: like the light of the sun -- Conversation 7: healing as the restoration of wholeness -- Conversation 8: healing individual and social wounds -- Conversation 9: the healing power of dialogue -- Conversation 10: dialogue …Read more
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    The Geometry of Defection
    Social Philosophy Today 17 69-90. 2001.
    This paper examines a social contractarian model in which an actor cooperates by mimicry; that is, cooperates just in case there is majority cooperation in his orher vicinity. A computer simulation is developed to study the relation between initial and final proportions of such cooperators, as wel l as to chart the population dynamics themselves. The model turns out to be non-linear; item bodies a quintessentially chaotic threshold. The simulation also yields other unforeseen results, revealing …Read more
  •  6
    The Geometry of Defection
    Social Philosophy Today 17 69-90. 2001.
    This paper examines a social contractarian model in which an actor cooperates by mimicry; that is, cooperates just in case there is majority cooperation in his orher vicinity. A computer simulation is developed to study the relation between initial and final proportions of such cooperators, as wel l as to chart the population dynamics themselves. The model turns out to be non-linear; item bodies a quintessentially chaotic threshold. The simulation also yields other unforeseen results, revealing …Read more
  •  4
    From the author of the international bestseller Plato Not Prozac!, a vital guide to the art of living. Professor Lou Marinoff's first book drew on the wisdom of the great philosophers to solve our everyday problems, launching a movement that restored philosophy to what it once was: useful in all walks of life. Now, in The Big Questions, he takes the concept to the next level, applying centuries of philosophy and great literature to answer central questions of modern existence. Urging us not to a…Read more