"Fifty Ways to Use your Lever" -- the classical Archimedes hit

"The crowbar is all inside your head" she said to me,

"And we can demonstrate it mathematically,

"I'd like to help you here in Alexanderee,

There must be fifty ways to use your lever."

She said, "It's really not 'Eureka' I exude,

Furthermore if one should break it's not me who will be sued

You built a Death Ray pal so you'll live if I am crude,

There must be fifty ways to use your lever."

You just find a firm place, Ace

Fulcrum's the plan, Stan

Don't fear the big weight, Fate

Just make the Earth move.

Hop on the horse, course

You don't need dialectic

Chariot'll do, Lou

Just make the Earth move....

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A Story About Coleridge

This is a quote from a memoir by Dorothy Wordsworth, reflecting on a trip she took with two famous poets, her brother, William Wordsworth, and their similarly gifted companion, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. We sat upon a bench, placed for the sake of one of these views, whence we looked down upon the waterfall, and over the open country ... A lady and gentleman, more expeditious tourists than ourselves, came to the spot; they left us at the seat, and we found them again at another station above the Falls. Coleridge, who is always good-natured enough to enter into conversation with anybody whom he meets in his way, began to talk with the gentleman, who observed that it was a majestic waterfall. Coleridge was delighted with the accuracy of the epithet, particularly as he had been settling in his own mind the precise meaning of the words grand, majestic, sublime, etc., and had discussed the subject with William at some length the day before. “Yes, sir,” says Coleridge, “it is a maj...

Searle: The Chinese Room

John Searle has become the object of accusations of improper conduct. These accusations even have some people in the world of academic philosophy saying that instructors in that world should try to avoid teaching Searle's views. That is an odd contention, and has given rise to heated exchanges in certain corners of the blogosphere. At Leiter Reports, I encountered a comment from someone describing himself as "grad student drop out." GSDO said: " This is a side question (and not at all an attempt to answer the question BL posed): How important is John Searle's work? Are people still working on speech act theory or is that just another dead end in the history of 20th century philosophy? My impression is that his reputation is somewhat inflated from all of his speaking engagements and NYRoB reviews. The Chinese room argument is a classic, but is there much more to his work than that?" I took it upon myself to answer that on LR. But here I'll tak...

The Lyrics of "Live Like You Were Dying"

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Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

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