Since today is Thanksgiving here in America, let’s flashback to Dido’s “Thank You,” from 1998. The song made it to #3 on the Billboard Hot…
Category: Friendly Philosophy
Top 40 Philosophy: Jessie J, Ariana Grande, & Nicki Minaj, “Bang Bang”
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, Music, and Top 40 Philosophy
Okay, there’s no avoiding it this time. “Bang Bang,” by Jessie J, Ariana Grande, and Nicki Minaj, is at #8 this week, and we’ve already…
Top 40 Philosophy: Hozier, “Take Me to Church”
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, Music, Theology, and Top 40 Philosophy
We’ve done all the other songs in the top 5 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, so today we’re jumping down to #6, Hozier’s “Take Me…
Top 40 Philosophy: Taylor Swift, “Blank Space”
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, Music, and Top 40 Philosophy
Alright, enough wallowing in the past. Back to the current Billboard Hot 100, where we find — surprise, surprise! — Taylor Swift again. Billboard tells…
Top 40 Philosophy Flashback: Boston, “More Than a Feeling”
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, Music, and Top 40 Philosophy
Kurt Cobain thought of “Smells Like Teen Spirit’s” chord progression as a rip-off of Boston’s “More Than a Feeling.” Nirvana even introed “Smells Like Teen…
Top 40 Philosophy Flashback: Nirvana, “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, Music, and Top 40 Philosophy
Yesterday we discussed heroes and the Foo Fighters. Today, let’s jump back even further in time to the song that introduced the world to the…
Top 40 Philosophy: Tove Lo, “Habits (Stay High)”
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, Music, and Top 40 Philosophy
After taking a two-post break from the Billboard Hot 100 chart, we’re back with this week’s #4 song, “Habits (Stay High)” by Tove Lo. Both…
Top 40 Philosophy: DJ Khaled, “I’ll Hold You Down”
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, Music, and Top 40 Philosophy
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…
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…
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…