Philosophy bits

William James

Gertrude Himmelfarb on William James and the new atheists.

Last spring, I wrote about Colin McGinn's stinging review of Terrence Deacon's book. Now, Deacon has responded with a letter to the NY Review of Books, to which McGinn replies.

Robert Boyers on novels of ideas (with remarks about Turgenev, Philip Roth, Ondaatje, Naipaul, Pamuk, Hitchens, etc.).

Michael P. Lynch gives reasons for reasoning (in a critique of Jonathan Haidt).

Here's a three-part series by Liz Williams on Karl Popper in the Guardian. And here's the site for the Guardian's series 'How to Believe' (with material on Donne, Milton, Aquinas, etc.).

The Guardian's obituary for Ray Billington, a former Methodist preacher and former atheist who was drawn to eastern religions.

The latest mp3 in the University of Chicago's series, Elucidations, has N. Asher talking about the philosophy of language.

'What do animals think?' -- a talk given by Tim Crane at Cambridge University. And here are Kristin Andrews and Robert Lurz on 'Animals and Mindreading'.

An Oxford podcast with Sir Roger Penrose speaking about AI and consciousness.

Here are some podcasts from the Northern Institute of Philosophy, the latest of which is a discussion with Crispin Wright. 

Terry Pinkard's review of Eckart Förster's Twenty-Five Years of Philosophy: A Systematic Reconstruction.