aesthetics Archives • Richard Carrier Blogs

The Evolution of Awe vs. The Aesthetic Argument for God

Richard Carrier — Fri, 14 Feb 2025 15:53:16 +0000

Over a decade ago I wrote my last update on the science of aesthetics and how it confirms naturalism over theism (“Musical Aesthetics”), building on and updating my argument from visual science in Sense and Goodness without God with a discussion of music science. I also there listed scientific surveys of other domains of aesthetic […]

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The Methodological Application of My Theory of Humor

Richard Carrier — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 14:44:32 +0000

In interviews and hangouts I’ve often discussed my theory of humor and its importance to how we interpret humor, from how we use comedy to understand things about history, to how we decide whether a joke is actually racist or offensive rather than simply funny (or deserved: see The Art of the Insult & The […]

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Bayesian Analysis of Shelley Park’s Uncanniness Thesis

Richard Carrier — Sun, 05 Feb 2023 00:31:14 +0000

Last month I launched my three-part series on analyzing peer-reviewed philosophy papers with my Bayesian Analysis of Faria Costa’s Theory of Group Agency, where I explain my process and how I selected the articles for review. Second up is “Uncomfortably Close to Human: Robots and the Neocolonial Politics of Care” by Shelley M. Park, in […]

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Justin Brierley and the Meaning of Life

Richard Carrier — Sat, 23 Apr 2022 18:47:29 +0000

“These are the reasons,” Justin Brierley says, “that I believe God is the best explanation of human existence, value and purpose” (p. 93). What reasons does he mean? Really, nothing more than a repeated confusion between the obvious natural reasons why we like getting to be alive—and can appreciate much of what we are able […]

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Another Failed Thought Experiment: Nozick’s Experience Machine and How It Exemplifies What Bad Philosophy Looks Like

Richard Carrier — Sun, 06 Feb 2022 21:34:52 +0000

I will be answering in my next article the new questions posed in the 2020 iteration of the PhilPapers survey (a new development I just wrote about). But one of those new questions requires a separate article on its own: the one written, “Experience machine (would you enter?): yes or no?” This refers to a […]

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Why A Neo-Aristotelian Naturalism Is Probably True

Richard Carrier — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 19:44:14 +0000

I have written a few times on my worldview as a whole—my “philosophy of life.” To be viable I believe any worldview must consist of a complete, consilient, coherent, evidence-based account of the six foundations of knowledge: epistemology (which includes semantics), science (which includes history), metaphysics (now more commonly called ontology), ethics (including both morality […]

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Brilliant Art by Rena Davonne

Richard Carrier — Sun, 01 Nov 2020 18:04:12 +0000

Many have been asking about the fantastic and intriguing cover art to my new book Jesus from Outer Space. It’s an original painting by artist Rena Davonne. It’s intentionally psychedelic-conceptual, in keeping with the mystical and hallucinatory origins of the Christian religion, and the mod-style feeling of the title. It evokes an aesthetic and an […]

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Shaun Skills: How to Learn from Exemplary Cases

Richard Carrier — Sun, 30 Aug 2020 17:35:09 +0000

Shaun is a YouTube critic who composes a lot of excellent videos critiquing various other YouTube content, from social commentators to entertainment media. He does a good job of summarizing, fact-checking, logic-vetting, and illustrating his finds in the video medium. I am about to re-start my one-month Critical Thinking course next week (check out the […]

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PragerU to The Internet: Science Proves God, You Pinko Commies!

Richard Carrier — Thu, 05 Mar 2020 19:00:38 +0000

PragerU claims in multiple conservative propaganda videos that science has proved God exists and atheists should just go stuff it already. I’ll tackle this nonsense today—just to be useful, since most of PragerU’s critiques online target its lies, fallacies, and distortions about history and politics. Which is great. But I feel like the God thing […]

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The Carrier-Marshall Debate: My Ninth Reply

Richard Carrier — Wed, 19 Jun 2019 20:59:39 +0000

Christian historian Dr. Wallace Marshall and I are debating whether or not enough evidence points to the existence of a god. For background and format, and Dr. Wallace’s opening statement, see entry one; for the rest, our index. We are now discussing what I call the Argument from Indifference against the existence of God. Marshall […]

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