Carl Pierer is an undergraduate student in Philosophy and Mathematics at the University of Edinburgh. After working for a year with the Maison de la Culture Yiddish – Bibliothèque Medem in Paris, he is now interested in languages, mathematics and all matters philosophical and logical. Email: c(dot)pierer(at)gmx(dot)ch
by Carl Pierer Often, people don't do a particular thing. Even if they are supposed to. Tamino didn't talk to Pamina, Kant didn't leave Königsberg and Peter Singer doesn't donate all his money (to the point of marginal utility) to charity. We like to take this not acting as evidence for something more. Tamino's silence…
In the Havana of the late 50s, Jim Wormold, a Phastkleaners vacuum cleaners salesman, lives a quaint life. Regularly, he meets with Dr Hasselbacher, a German expatriate, at the Wonder Bar, drinking Daiquiries. His daughter Milly is courted by Captain Segura, the chief of police in Havana. Segura is a dangerous man, feared and hated…
by Carl Pierer In the book “Existentialism – A Reconstruction” David E. Cooper devotes an entire chapter to inquiring the relation between philosophy and alienation. Cooper's interest is to make the point that “the issues of alienation are pivotal in existentialist thought” ([1], p.31). To do so, he includes a brief sketch of Hegel's and…
by Carl Pierer Dear Mr F. Your recent book was read with much appreciation and was very well received. It is truly impressive that you manage to translate a foreign author's essays with such accuracy and close attention to his many plays on words. Yet, as a native Austrian, your annotations and commentaries are the…
by Carl Pierer George Gershwin's “Porgy and Bess” is probably the first piece that comes to mind in the line of folk opera. However, unlike this early predecessor, modern folk operas are entirely different. The following is an attempt at definition: The term can be applied to concept albums that fall in the vague genre…
by Carl Pierer “Yes, I would let the five people die.” To philosophers, and I mean to include all people interested in philosophical questions, this is a pretty standard response to a pretty well-known thought experiment: The Trolley Problem. But it is not only in philosophy that you get very uncanny scenarios when trying to…