The papers are in .pdf format, so you'll need a reader like Foxit or Acrobat Reader to be able to read them, but the archived blog posts are HTML. Comments and corrections are always welcome via e-mail.


• Blog Writings (2005 - Present)
  Since graduating from college in 2005 my blog has become my primary outlet for non-fiction writing. They're less polished and usually less thought-out than my writing for school, but I've included them here to make them more accessible and to have a record of what I've been thinking in the years since college.
  
  
  • Hilary Bok Can Go to Avici Hell : An Open Letter (4/14/2007) - Some adjusting from my first semester at Brown.
    
    
  • Work, Accomplishment, and Patience (1/23/2007) - An overview of my struggle with the place of "hard work" in my life with tangents on accomplishments and patience.
    
    
  • Zefrank / "Thank You" / Sincerity (11/24/2006) - I talk about some sincerity claims made by Zefrank concerning the phrase "Thank You."
    
    
  • Caring (11/9/2006) - Some thoughts about Caring : A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education by Nel Noddings.
    
    
  • What's in your head, Zombie? (11/4/2006) - I discuss some of the intolerance and hypocrisy I've found in Tibetan Buddhism.
    
    
  • Some Bullshit (Problems in Translation) (10/18/2006) - Some of the complaints I have concerning a translation of the sa skya legs bshad by John T. Davenport and the accompanying commentary by Sakya Khenpo Sangyay Tenzin.
    
    
  • Stars & An Old Plan (10/4/2006) - A reflection on a pilgrimage in Tibet and a plan for purifying the mind from 7th grade.
    
    
  • Schizophrenia (7/18/2006) - Washed-up rappers, NES video games, and a few complaints. 'Bad Dudes' are the new Übermensch.
    
    
  • A Little Bit of Knowledge (7/3/2006) - Intellectual arrogance and the word "like."
    
    
  • Certainty & Work (4/19/2006) - Some thoughts about work and certainty.
    
    
  • Lame Skepticism (4/5/2006) - The abuse of skepticism by Dr. Yaron Brock of the Ayn Rand Institute (would I expect any less?).
    
    
  • A plague, on both my houses (3/6/2006) - Lamentation in the form of an open letter to several deities.
    
    
  • Très Romantique (2/22/2006) - Thoughts on the custom of the diamond wedding ring.
    
    
  • Thoughts on Thought (12/1/2005) - Thoughts on the difference between being intelligent and being perceived as such.
    
    
  • It's a-me, a-Mario (11/24/2005) - Some of the criticisms and creativity of videogames. Lots of eternal links that may or may not work.
    
    
  
  
• On Sincerity (2005)
  This paper has two main aims.  The first is to provide a positive account of sincerity that is free from some of the weaknesses that face previous accounts based on deception, singlemindedness, and purity. The second is to sketch the position of sincerity in common sense morality, specifically what its role is and when it is most relevant for evaluations of actions and agents. This was my honors thesis and I received much help from Stephen Darwall and Alan Gibbard among others.  
  
  
• An Evaluation of Dissimulation in Descartes' Meditations (2004)
  Using aspects of Hiram Caton's hypothesis as a starting point, I evaluate the formulation of the Dissimulation hypothesis claiming that Descartes is insincere in both the proof of the non-deceiving God in Meditation III and his use of the veracious God to validate clear and distinct perception in Meditation IV. I sketch out a prima facie case for the dissimulation theory based on its explanatory power, especially with regards to the Cartesian circle and the causal principle of Meditation III. I then raise some textual considerations relevant to the theory and expose some of its philosophical implications. I do not argue that the dissimulation theory itself is true or false, merely that is worthy of the serious consideration that it rarely receives.
  
  
• Descartes' Motivations for Foundationalism (2003)
  The standard account of Descartes' motivation for a foundational system of justification claims that it is a response to concerns over global skepticism. I reject this account on the grounds that it lacks textual support outside of the Meditations on First Philosophy. It is my view that Descartes holds more basic ideas about the nature of certainty as it relates to mathematics and memory that commit him to foundationalism.
  
  
• Cultural Bias in Standardized Intelligence Testing (2002)
  An attempt to show how standardized tests can be culturally biased, how the interpretations of the results of such a test can be similarly biased, and examine who benefits from the current system of intelligence testing.
  
  
  
  
  All content by Nic Bommarito unless otherwise noted.