This week on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, DJ Khaled’s “I’ll Hold You Down” is #1. The song features Chris Brown, August Alsina, Future, and…
Author: Micah Tillman
Micah has a Ph.D. in philosophy and a B.A. in computer science. He plays and makes video games, thinks philosophically about pop music, and loves fractals.
Top 40 Philosophy: Bobby Shmurda, “Hot *****”
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, Music, and Top 40 Philosophy
During the inaugural week of Top 40 Philosophy, we philosophized about the top 3 songs on Billboard’s Hot 100. Next up was Tove Lo’s “Habits…
The last entry in this week’s Top 40 Philosophy is the current #3 song on Billboard’s Hot 100, Maroon 5’s “Animals.” That’s the lyric video…
Top 40 Philosophy: Meghan Trainor, “All About That Bass”
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, Music, and Top 40 Philosophy
In this, the second installment of “Top 40 Philosophy,” we turn to this week’s #2 song on Billboard’s Hot 100: Meghan Trainor’s “All About That…
Top 40 Philosophy: Taylor Swift, “Shake It Off”
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, Music, and Top 40 Philosophy
Welcome to “Top 40 Philosophy”* where I get to do one of my favorite things: analyze vapid pop music philosophically, just to prove: that you…
Learning from Games
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, and Life
I find it absolutely fascinating when animals play, even though their games basically boil down to pretending to kill each other. The ability to pretend…
Generosity Is Not Justice
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, and Society
“Making distinctions” is “the method of philosophy,” so you must forgive me for complaining about this. I am awash in ethics debates this semester, and…
Do We Experience Reality?
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, and Language
Do the election results make you think that some people have lost touch with reality? If it helps, many philosophers think no one has ever made…
Mysteries, Cheap and Dear
Posted in Literature, and Theology
I’ve been listening to a lot of mystery novels recently (I have a long commute on Tuesdays and Thursdays) and have noticed that some mysteries…
The Logic of the Incarnation
Posted in Theology
I’m reading The Presence and the Power: The Significance of the Holy Spirit in the Life and Ministry of Jesus, by Gerald F. Hawthorne at…
Imagining the Kingdom, by James K. A. Smith
Posted in Life, and Thinking Out Loud
I recently finished Imagining the Kingdom: How Worship Works (Cultural Liturgies, vol. 2), by James. K. A. Smith. It’s the 2nd book in a series,…
I’ve received two rejection letters this summer for papers. I sent the first paper right out again, because the rejection from the APA’s new journal…
Experimental Philosophy, Old and New Modern philosophy begins, in many ways, with what was known as “experimental philosophy” — the name given to the work…
Perception as Synthesis?
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, and Life
While checking some audio-books-on-CD, to make sure I was returning all the right discs to the library, I noticed something odd. The slip covers/pages/whatever that…
Decisions Are Not Choices, or Are They?
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, and Language
The words “decision” and “choice” seem to be pretty much synonymous in English, as do their verbal counterparts “decide” and “choose.” However, they strike me…
Three Ways of Understanding the Distinction I find it helpful to understand the difference between Analytic and Continental philosophy in three different ways, all of…
Some Not-Well-Developed Thoughts: Whether wholes are more fundamental than their parts, or parts more fundamental than their wholes, is an important question. The terminology of…
In “Fancy,” by Iggy Azalea, ft. Charli XCX, Ms. XCX sings: I’m in the fast lane from L.A. to Tokyo Just in case future anthropologists…