Thinking Beyond Intuition.

Abstract: What constitutes a powerful theory in the cognitive sciences? Amid a fragmented landscape of domain-specific explanations, the theoretical virtues of parsimony (explaining much with little) and breadth of explanatory scope have become paramount. This paper argues that the Predictive Processing Framework (PPF), which models the brain as a hierarchical prediction-error minimization engine, exhibits these […]

Abstract: The contemporary public sphere is widely perceived to be in a state of crisis. From Twitter pile-ons to political flame wars, public discourse increasingly resembles not a debate, but a series of cascading moral emergencies—moments of outrage that flare, collide, and decay without resolution. Traditional models of communicative action, which presuppose an intent toward […]

For centuries, we’ve fought over what is right and what is wrong. What if the real problem is that both concepts are a harmful illusion we’d be better off without?

Abstract: This paper argues that a commitment to moral anti-realism, specifically in the form of J.L. Mackie’s Error Theory, should lead not to a conservative Fictionalism but to a radical Abolitionism. We first establish the plausibility of Error Theory, buttressed by an Evolutionary Debunking Argument. We then argue that a uniquely pernicious and central function […]

Abstract: The perennial debate concerning the existence of God has traditionally focused on metaphysical, epistemological, and moral arguments. This paper contends that such debates are premature, as they presuppose the semantic viability of the concept of ‘God’. We advance an argument for a position termed ‘nulltheism’, which holds that the set of individuals who believe […]

This paper argues that traditional ethical systems, predicated on the illusion of free will, are fundamentally incoherent. It first establishes a metaphysical framework of necessitarianism, wherein consciousness is an emergent, observational property of a deterministic universe. From this foundation, it deconstructs concepts such as moral responsibility, blame, and justice as social constructs designed to mitigate the inherent horror of conscious existence. Morality is anesthesia. In place of a prescriptive morality of “good” and “evil,” the paper proposes a descriptive and functional system termed “Anesthetic Ethics.” Within this framework, a “moral” action is not one that aligns with an objective good, but one that sustainably maximizes an individual’s and a community’s capacity to cope with existence. The ultimate measure of any action is its long-term viability as an anesthetic. We conclude by exploring the unsettling but logical implications of this framework, which reframes human morality as the sophisticated pragmatism of an addict seeking to manage their own condition.

I. On the Self We mistake the complexity of our thoughts for freedom, like a river believing it has chosen its path to the sea. Deliberation is the sound the gears make. Choice is theater. The self is not the author, nor even the character. It is the conscious tremor in the puppet’s string, and […]

Pushed onto the stage. A script, a light. The beginning is unrecorded. The performance is mandatory. The applause is silence. The silence is mandatory. A thirst for resolution. A question shaped like a mouth. The cosmos, a stone in the mouth. The stone does not answer. The mouth swallows itself. The work is to adorn […]

This essay presents a philosophical examination of epistemic humility, proposing it not merely as a psychological disposition but as a normative epistemic principle essential for rational inquiry. We begin by furnishing a precise definition of epistemic humility, distinguishing it from radical skepticism and mere intellectual modesty. Subsequently, we ground the principle in a fallibilist conception of knowledge, drawing upon historical shifts in scientific paradigms to illustrate the provisional nature of theoretical frameworks. The analysis then explores the role of interpretation and conceptual schemata in the construction of knowledge, using interpretations of quantum mechanics as a case study to challenge naive realism. Finally, we articulate the normative case against its antithesis, epistemic hubris, identifying its cognitive and ethical costs. We conclude that epistemic humility, understood as a second-order awareness of the limits of our cognitive faculties, is a necessary condition for intellectual progress and integrity.

This paper identifies and analyzes a contemporary modality of the absurd that diverges fundamentally from its classical existentialist conception. Whereas the Camusian absurd arises from a confrontation between the human desire for meaning and a meaningless universe, we posit the emergence of a performative absurd—a strategic deployment of incoherence as a tool for demonstrating power and testing the limits of normative structures. Using a thought experiment involving a grotesquely transgressive cultural artifact, we argue that such spectacles function not as substantive political statements but as ideological stress tests. Drawing upon the theoretical frameworks of Slavoj Žižek and Guy Debord, we contend that within the logic of the spectacle, such performances expose the fragility of social consensus and the capacity of influence to hollow out semantic and moral content. The analysis extends to case studies in political discourse and science denial, concluding that this deployed absurdity serves as a powerful diagnostic tool, revealing the erosion of the symbolic authority that underpins social order.