Philosophers Are Never Quite Sure What They

Is He A Dread Genetic Determinist, Or A Dread Environmental Determinist? He Is Neither, Of Course, For Both These Species Of Bogeyman Are As Mythical As Werewolves. By Increasing The Information We Have About The Various Causes Of The Constraints That Limit Our Current Opportunities, He Has Increased Our Powers To Avoid What We Want To Avoid, Prevent What We Want To Prevent. Knowledge Of The Roles Of Our Genes, And The Genes Of The Other Species Around Us, Is Not The Enemy Of Human Freedom, But One Of Its Best Friends.

In Order To Make A Perfect And Beautiful Machine, It Is Not Requisite To Know How To Make It. All The Works Of Human Genius Can Be Understood In The End To Be Products Of A Cascade Of Generate-and-test Procedures That Are, At Bottom, Algorithmic And Mindless.

The Kindly God Who Lovingly Fashioned Each And Every One Of Us And Sprinkled The Sky With Shining Stars For Our Delight - That God Is, Like Santa Claus, A Myth Of Childhood, Not Anything [that] A Sane, Undeluded Adult Could Literally Believe In. That God Must Either Be Turned Into A Symbol For Something Less Concrete Or Abandoned Altogether.

Human Consciousness Is Just About The Last Surviving Mystery... A Topic That Often Leaves Even The Most Sophisticated Thinkers Tongue-tied And Confused. And, As With All Of The Earlier Mysteries, There Are Many Who Insist - And Hope - That There Will Never Be A Demystification Of Consciousness.

Philosophers Are Never Quite Sure What They Are Talking About - About What The Issues Really Are - And So Often It Takes Them Rather A Long Time To Recognize That Someone With A Somewhat Different Approach (or Destination, Or Starting Point) Is Making A Contribution.