This is an interesting week at the MIT Philosophy Department. Yesterday I attended a talk by Rebecca Goldstein, author of several books including the stunning Incompleteness about Kurt Gödel and the mischievous novel of philosophy The Mind-Body Problem. She read a paper entitled “Mathematics and the Character of Tragedy”, which you can find here.
Tomorrow the maverick NYU philosopher Peter Unger will be defending a version of strong Cartesian dualism under the heading “Why We Really May Be Immaterial Souls”, based on Chapter 7 of his book All The Power In The World. I can hardly wait! Mind you, I hope his treatment of the topic will avoid the “aw shucks” style that permeates the Preface to the book.