Feb. 7, 2010

Feb. 7, 2010, originally uploaded by TedSher.

Feb. 6, 2010

Feb. 6, 2010, originally uploaded by TedSher.

The gallery was jammed with hundreds of artists registering their work for the Foot in the Door show. Behind me I heard one being interviewed on camera and recognized her as one of my students from last year. Made me proud.

Feb. 5, 2010

Feb. 5, 2010, originally uploaded by TedSher.

Please join us 4-5:30 pm Feb. 11 in CH4 when Kevin Sharpe will read his “Property Dualism Entails Substance Dualism” with discussion to follow.

Abstract: An increasingly popular view amongst philosophers of mind has it that one can hold a robust form of property dualism, roughly the view that mental properties are neither physical nor physically realized, while denying substance dualism, the view that human persons are immaterial substances. Despite its initial appeal, I don’t think this position is tenable. Property dualism entails substance dualism. Call this the entailment thesis. Drawing on Chalmers’ zombie argument against physicalism, I propose a new argument for the entailment thesis: Property dualism entails the possibility of zombie world (a world that contains physical duplicates of phenomenally conscious beings that altogether lacks phenomenal consciousness). If zombie worlds are possible then it’s possible for my body to exist in a zombie world, but as I am essentially conscious, it’s not possible for me to exist in a zombie world. Therefore, if property dualism is true, then I am not identical to my body. Although the argument is put in terms of my body, it can be put in terms of any physical object that I might be identified with. So if property dualism is true, then I am not identical to any physical thing (i.e. substance dualism is true). Thus, there is no middle ground between substance dualism and full-blown physicalism. If one rejects physicalism, substance dualism is unavoidable.

Feb. 4, 2010

Feb. 4, 2010, originally uploaded by TedSher.

Feb. 3, 2010

Corin Hewitt @ the art department, originally uploaded by TedSher.

"Here's What's Happening in Your Part of the World (As We Speak)" by Corin Hewitt

Eight-foot cast-marble sculpture of retired weatherman Willard Scott is installed in an unused grain silo in Richmond, Vermont for the coming year. Scott was the national television weatherman on the influential morning news program The Today Show and earlier, the first Ronald McDonald clown.

Feb. 2, 2010

Feb. 2, 2010, originally uploaded by TedSher.

We attended our precinct caucus tonight, listen to campaigners for candidates for congress and Minnesota governor's race. This is St. Cloud city council president Bob Johnson seeking support for State Sen. Taryl Clark in her bid to unseat incumbent Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann.

Feb. 1, 2010

Feb. 1, 2010, originally uploaded by TedSher.

Matt Sintchak, saxophonist with the new media duo Sonict, repairs a wireless microphone before the final third of a concert that included video, live electronic mixings, and his saxophones.