Showing results by author "J.-M. Kuczynski" in All Categories

It is explained how to get over OCD and what role medications, specifically SSRIs (selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors), have in the process of getting over OCD.

The widespread belief that the mind is a computer embodies a failure to distinguish between computers and information-processing systems. Minds are information-processing systems, but they are not computers.

It is made clear what discursive knowledge is and how we acquire it, and some age-old skeptical views are shown to be incoherent. It is shown that all knowledge is to some degree inferential. At the same time, it is shown that there are three quite distinct senses in which empirical knowledge can be inferential. It is proved that we have a priori knowledge, and also that knowledge of non-empirical truths is needed to acquire empirical knowledge.

In this work, Descartes' metaphysics and epistemology are clearly stated and assiduously analyzed. It is shown that Descartes' epistemic foundationalism is tenable, and that his mind-body dualism is correct if taken to concern the relationship of mentalistic (mind-related) data to physicalistic data, even though it is incorrect if taken to concern the relationship of mind per se to body per se. Descartes' analysis of causation is shown to be correct, notwithstanding the copious criticism to which centuries have subjected it.

This volume contains a clear and concise analysis of the concept of natural law and of its role in the acquisition of knowledge.

The argument for God's existence is here clearly stated and definitively refuted. The so-called "ontological argument" for the existence of God was first put forth explicitly by St. Anselm. There are different versions of this argument. We'll consider three, starting with Anselm's own.

It is made clear what is involved in knowing will happen, what has happened, and what might have happened (but didn't). It is also made clear why the standard skeptical objections to the presumption that we have such knowledge are misconceived.

Chomsky's arguments for the existence of pre-experiential knowledge, and for the existence of sub-personal cognition, are clearly stated and shown to be cogent.

According to W.V.O. Quine, no observational datum supports any given hypothesis more than it supports any other given hypothesis, our belief to the contrary being nothing more than a prejudice born of our irrational preferences for certain rules of inference over others. In this very short work, it is shown that Quine's thesis is false and that his argument for it is broken. A corollary is that Kuhn's relativism ("truth is paradigm-internal") is false.

In this fictitious dialogue, it is made clear what a law of logic is and why the laws of classical logic are true.

A brisk introduction to the basic problems of ethics, this work consists of sharp, deep answers to foundational questions. Rigorous yet approachable, this work is an ideal introduction to analytic ethics and value theory.

The nature of relations, in the mathematical sense, is explained and, on that basis, the nature and significance of ordinal numbers is also explained. In the process, important points are made concerning the nature of mathematical structure.

"All ravens are black" is logically but not confirmationally equivalent with "all non-black things are non-ravens." But this is impossible, given that logical equivalence guarantees confirmational equivalence. In this paper, this paradox is solved.

This work identifies some of the masks worn by the sociopath, when he happens to be employed as a professor.

In this brief but rigorous examination of the concept of time-travel, it is clearly stated what time-travel would be, were it possible. It is thereby shown that the very concept of time-travel is incoherent.

This lively yet profound exchange vividly illustrates a number of important facts about an oft-misunderstood and deeply significant form of psychopathology. The world's leading analytic philosopher and logician, Dr. Kuczynski has also established himself as a leading psychoanalytic clinician and theoretician. This work draws heavily from Kuczynski's groundbreaking treatise Empiricism and the Foundations of Psychology.

Obsessive fears are unconscious desires. The woman who is obsessively afraid that her phone is tapped actually wants her phone to be tapped; that is, she wants someone to pay attention to her. A neurotic fear of such and such is actually an unconscious desire for such and such, this being the topic of this brutally honest exchange.

A collection of papers and dialogues about OCD.