October 2011
23 posts
Marilyn Vos Savant
Q.: I have a clay statue on my mantelpiece. A friend who’s a philosophy student argues that the statue is not one thing, but two. The first is a statue that can be gravely harmed by squeezing. The second is a lump of clay that can’t be harmed no matter how you squeeze it. I think there’s really only one thing on my mantelpiece, but I don’t know how to answer him. Can...
September 2011
17 posts
Contradictory beliefs
It isn’t a good thing to have contradictory beliefs. Since I’ve notice what appear to be such beliefs in myself recently, I thought I’d share, both because I guess that there are others out there who also have them, and in the hope that Crooked Timber’s community of readers can tell either that I should discard some of them (on grounds of falsity) or that I’m wrong to think them contradictory. So...
“From 1836 to 1940, the Bellville family of London operated a business of letting...”
“Christopher Hitchens: American patriot. We’ve done a lot worse…If there is...”
Cash Rules Everything Around Me
As an investment, cash is considered a conservative bet. Tonight in Melbourne, a confident buyer took a punt that sometimes, in certain company, cash is worth more as art than money in the bank.
As the opening lot of the Deutscher and Hackett auction, a single wad of $20,000 cash – an artwork called Currency - was sold for $17,500. When the 22 per cent buyer’s premium is added, the total cost...
