Brain, Time and Cosmos
 
 

Brain, Time and Cosmos

  

Mark F. Sharlow on Philosophy, Science and Culture
 
 
Key Items Subject Areas


    

  
What's New?

  • READER ALERT! Misinformation About Me on the Web: Some people who don't like my ideas about religion have been spreading false information about my academic background and work. Don't believe their garbage. Here's a link to a page with some real facts about my background.

  • Position Statement on the Occupy Movement:  This new page is in the political section of my site.

  • Mereology and More:  I've posted a longish PDF document exploring the concepts of whole and part. This is based on one of my earlier books.

  • Paper on Russell's Teapot:  I've posted a preprint on Bertrand Russell's teapot argument. I contend that this argument doesn't succeed in supporting atheism.  (This doesn't rule out the possibility that it supports agnosticism.)

  • Guide to My Philosophical Work: This guide summarizes my philosophical outlook and gives links to most of my writings sorted by subject. It's a good place to start if you want to know what I've said about some particular topic. It's a PDF document. Here's the link.

 
My Blogs

My blog, The Unfinishable Scroll, has posts about science, religion, philosophy, and other interesting things. Check it out here.

One of the more popular parts of my blog is The Anti-Dawkins Papers, a set of essays debunking Richard Dawkins' book The God Delusion. (These essays aren't aimed at all forms of atheism, only at the arguments in Dawkins' book.)

My other blog, Religion: the Next Version, presents my ideas about what religion could be. Click here if you dare.

A PDF archive of my blogs is here.  (Note: I don't update this often, so refer to the live blogs for the newest stuff.)

 
Online Papers and Essays

This site includes the following online papers and essays. All are in HTML or PDF formats. Writings too informal to be papers are marked as "essay," "notes," or the like.

This list doesn't include my print-published papers. For these, see the Publications page. This list also doesn't include Sharlow's Scratchpad, which is the area where I keep notes and drafts that are too tentative for the main part of the site.

Consciousness and Mind

Physics / Philosophy of Physics

Philosophy of Chemistry

Other Philosophy

Mathematics

Culture

Politics

 
My Books

Some of my writings are available as PDF ebooks. Click here for the details.

My book From Brain to Cosmos explored some philosophical questions about consciousness, time and existence from a new vantage point. The book is now out of print. Most of it is available on this site. Click here to learn more.

 
About Me

In case you're wondering about my background, I'm mainly a chemical physicist by training (Ph.D. in chemistry), but most of my research is in philosophy. My dissertation research was in statistical thermodynamics, a branch of chemical physics with known philosophical implications. Before that, I earned a bachelor's degree with a double major in physics and philosophy, followed by a masters' degree in biochemistry. My research has been published in peer reviewed journals in philosophy, physics and chemistry. Since I received my Ph.D., I've been a college instructor, a scientific computer programmer, and an independent writer and scholar.

 
About My Research

Here are some of my past and present research interests, in no particular order. For detailed information, please consult my publications list, my online papers, my book and ebooks, and the rest of the page that you are now reading.

  • Philosophy of mind (neural origins of qualia and ineffability; metaphysics of the self)
  • Philosophy of time (metaphysics of time; time travel paradoxes)
  • Philosophy of chemistry (concept of element; notions of possibility in chemistry)
  • Ontology of abstract objects (status of universals; realism vs. nominalism)
  • Idealistic philosophy (its relationship to analytic philosophy and to neuroscience)
  • Set theory (iterative conception of set; proper classes; NF)
  • Spacetime physics (spacetime manifolds with unusual topologies)
  • Liquid crystal physics (analytic theory and computer simulations)
  • Philosophy of phonetics (analyzing the notion of phonetic possibility)
  • Foundations of dimensional analysis (generalized algebras of dimensional quantities)
  • Foundations of quantum mechanics (branching spacetime and non-Copenhagen interpretations)
  • Philosophy of religion (compatibility of religion with science and reason)

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    Contact me at: msharlow AT usermail DOT com

    (replace the AT and DOT with the customary symbols, and take out the blank spaces)

     

    Page updated 4/5/2012

     

    Copyrights: Page © 2002-2012 Mark F. Sharlow. Brain and clock image near top, © 2005 Mark F. Sharlow. Starry sky background image near top, © 2007 Mark F. Sharlow. All rights reserved. For legal information about this site (disclaimers, etc.) and privacy statement, see the Legal Page.