Kenny Pearce

Wittgenstein and the Xunzi on the Clarification of Language - Dao Broadly speaking, language is part of a social activity in both Wittgenstein and Xunzi 荀子, and for both clarification of language is central to their philosophical projects; the goal of this article i...

Sure, there are many angles one could take in linking the two. Here’s one way that I took in an article from several years ago

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Interesting! Thanks for sharing.

I can hope that, just by setting them alongside each other, the book will lead others to explore this.

They each get a chapter, and they come before the De Cruz chapter. I think their views are similar in fascinating ways, but I haven't had the time (& don't really have the expertise) to work that out in detail & AFAIK no one else has so far either!

Working on the section on religious practice for my 50 Puzzles book this week I found myself writing about how Xunzi and Wittgenstein might respond to this article by Helen De Cruz: www.jstor.org/stable/45128.... I wish Helen was here to see it.

George Berkeley (1685–1753) on Obedience and Natural Law | 8 | Christi George Berkeley (1685–1753) was a philosopher and Church of Ireland bishop. His 1712 work Passive Obedience develops a novel theory of natural law and its

Direct link to my chapter, if your library has access: bit.ly/3XsAire

Book cover

Table of contents

Table of contents

Table of contents

Received my author copy today!
www.routledge.com/Christianity...

2. It’s possible to know God without even so much as believing (let alone knowing) that God exists.
3. People who think God is Goodness Itself (or otherwise important for the foundations of ethics) have extra reason for thinking this situation is common.

Knowledge and God | Cambridge University Press & Assessment

The later sections of this very short book by Matthew Benton (www.cambridge.org/us/universit...) provides a great discussion of some themes I’m often harping on:
1. There’s a big difference between KNOWING GOD and KNOWING THAT GOD EXISTS.

I'm a philosopher interested in how our understanding of what it is to be a person can shape our understanding of the dynamics of interpersonal relationships and conflict of all kinds. Looking for new ways to connect three years after quitting X.
#FirstDayOnBluesky

The part where they threatened to break a judge’s car windows should be a bigger story … they feel comfortable treating judges this way, which means they are being told that they can do literally anything to nearly everyone

I'm teaching this excellent paper on Monday.

"Christianity is not a body of propositions...[It] is, rather, a way of life that is thoroughly practical. It is dedicated to engaging God...a central aim of the Christian life is not to theorize about God but to know God."
-Terence Cuneo

place.asburyseminary.edu/faithandphil...

Online First: November 7, 2025 Philosophy & Theology ISSN 0890-2461 DOI: 10.5840/philtheol2025113187 Which Language of Nature for Berkeley’s God? Laura Berchielli Clermont Auvergne University

1. Pearce and Turbayne Two commentators have emphasized the centrality of linguistic struc- ture to Berkeley’s philosophy and each has dedicated a book to this notion. They are, respectively, Colin Turbayne’s The Myth of Metaphor (first published in 1962, then revised in 1970) and Kenneth Pearce’s Language and the Structure of Berkeley’s World (2017).

This was nice to see today.
www.pdcnet.org/philtheol/co...
#philosophy #c18

Kansas county pays $3M for forgetting the First Amendment Marion County cops got their First Amendment lesson the hard way. Police elsewhere should take note

Police and judges need a refresher on the First Amendment.

Kansas’ Marion County just provided the syllabus — the expensive way.

The Church Better Start Taking Nazification Seriously - Christianity Today Tucker Carlson hosted neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes on his podcast. The stakes are high for American Christians.

www.christianitytoday.com/2025/11/nazi...

So, I get several scam emails like this a day, but there's something special about a man wanting to write articles about casinos and sports betting whose fake name is Robert Poverty.

Oxford

North

Oct. 26, 1775: The chancellor, masters and scholars of Oxford University address King George III to declare their “utter abhorrence” of the “seditious proceedings, by which some of your Majesty's American subjects” are resisting royal authority. The chancellor happens to Prime Minister Lord North.

Full solution to all of ethics here: www.smbc-comics.com/comic/ethics-8
#smbc

Kant on Righteous Spinoza, and some Adam Smith Last Friday I attended a fascinating paper by Shterna S.

Kant on Righteous Spinoza, and some Adam Smith
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...

British empiricism is not a thing. But it's pretty clear that (Irish!) Berkeley and Hume take ideas to be images. It's disputed in the secondary lit whether Locke does.

screenshot of an email saying: "To the Penn Community: For 285 years, Penn has been anchored and guided by continuous self-improvement, using education as a ladder for opportunity, and advancing discoveries that serve our community, our nation, and the world. Since receiving the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education on October 1, I have sought input from faculty, alumni, trustees, students, staff and others who care deeply about Penn. The goal was to ensure that our response reflected our values and the perspectives of our broad community. Earlier today, I informed the U.S. Department of Education that Penn respectfully declines to sign the proposed Compact. As requested, we also provided focused feedback highlighting areas of existing alignment as well as substantive concerns. At Penn, we are committed to merit-based achievement and accountability. The long-standing partnership between American higher education and the federal government has greatly benefited society and our nation. Shared goals and investment in talent and ideas will turn possibility into progress. I am grateful to the Penn community for your thoughtful input and for what you bring to our University and our missions every day. Sincerely, J. Larry Jameson, MD, PhD President University of Pennsylvania"

Just received from a colleague: looks like Penn is going to join the universities refusing the extortionary Trump "compact". I do not regret to inform you that we are going to win

Tips Learn how to turn ideas into images.

Step 1: refuse to draw any distinction between "phantasm, notion, species, or whatever it is which the mind can be employed about in thinking".

#philosophy #c17

But too many of the slaves died in captivity. And so Columbus, desperate to pay back dividends to those who had in-vested, had to make good his promise to fill the ships with gold. In the province of Cicao on Haiti, where he and his men imagined huge gold fields to exist, they ordered all persons fourteen years or older to collect a certain quantity of gold every three months. When they brought it, they were given copper tokens to hang around their necks. Indians found without a copper token had their hands cut off and bled to death. The Indians had been given an impossible task. The only gold around was bits of dust garnered from the streams. So they fled, were hunted down with dogs, and were killed.

After each six or eight months' work in the mines, which was the time required of each crew to dig enough gold for melting, up to a third of the men died. While the men were sent many miles away to the mines, the wives remained to work the soil, forced into the excruciating job of digging and making thousands of hills for cassava plants. Thus husbands and wives were together only once every eight or ten months and when they met they were so exhausted and depressed on both sides... they ceased to pro-create. As for the newly born, they died early because their mothers, overworked and fam-ished, had no milk to nurse them, and for this reason, while I was in Cuba, 7000 children died in three months. Some mothers even drowned their babies from sheer desper-ation.... In this way, husbands died in the mines, wives died at work, and children died from lack of milk ... and in a short time this land which was so great, so powerful and fer-tile... was depopulated... My eyes have seen these acts so foreign to human nature, and now I tremble as I write....

Please remember that the disgust people have over Christopher Columbus is not based on some modern, 21st century “woke” ideology, but rather on contemporaneous accounts of atrocities that make many modern genocides appear quaint in comparison.

Below, are the accounts of Bartlomé de las Casas.

Editorial Manager account created

Pope Leo blasts economy that marginalizes poor while wealthy live in bubble of luxury Pope Leo XIV has blasted how wealthy people live in a “bubble of comfort and luxury” while the poor suffer.

Pope Leo XIV has blasted how wealthy people live in a “bubble of comfort and luxury” while the poor suffer. In his first teaching document Thursday, Leo confirms that he is in perfect lockstep with Pope Francis on matters of social injustice.

U.S. Military Carries Out Strike On Scuffy The Tugboat ARLINGTON, VA—Saying the Pentagon had acted swiftly on an insider tip about the vessel having a “big adventure” planned, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed Tuesday that the U.S. military had car...

Children's literature in the 'news': theonion.com/u-s-military...

Lovely write-up about great things happening in my department!
www.jmu.edu/news/cal/202...

Autism, A.D.H.D., Anxiety: Can a Diagnosis Make You Better?

My colleague Alan Levinovitz in the New York Times!
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/h...