Frank Saunders Jr 商柏正 – Philosopher, Author, Educator
I've recommitted to the YouTube channel. It's small, but like virtue itself, I hope that with enough care and consistency, it will grow. In addition to my "Let's Read Philosophy" series on various philosophical works, I've started doing edited videos as well. I hope to maintain a weekly upload schedule, if I can manage my... Continue Reading →
Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy is perhaps one of the most important philosophical works in the Western philosophical canon. Therein, Descartes aims to throw into doubt everything he thought he ever knew before then rebuilding his entire edifice of knowledge from the ground up. In so doing, he arrives at what he takes to be... Continue Reading →
"Autumn Floods" (秋水 Qiu Shui) is one of my favorite chapters in the Zhuangzi, offering several profound meditations on perspective, relativity, and the nature of wisdom through vivid allegories and thought-provoking dialogues. https://youtu.be/LR6v_HNUpoI In this video, I read through and offer commentary on "Autumn Floods" using my own translation, (which you can find here). The... Continue Reading →
David Hume's "Of the Standard of Taste" is an important little essay that has shaped discussions on beauty, art criticism, ethics, and all manner of subjective experience since its publication. Written by the Scottish skeptic and empiricist, David Hume (1711-1776), in the 18th century, this work offers a nuanced exploration of how we judge art... Continue Reading →
In this week's video, I read through and explain Parts 1-4 of René Descartes' Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason, and Seeking Truth in the Sciences. This is a masterwork of modern philosophy and was extremely influential in setting out the core tenets of rationalism that would guide much discussion of philosophy... Continue Reading →
What are some of the trends for jobs in philosophy over the past decade? I pulled some 6000 job advertisements from PhilJobs to find out.
Previously, I calculated the range of overall mean scores of PGR-ranked institutions from 2006-2021. This gave readers a sense of which institutions' scores changed the most over time. However, that analysis was limited in at least two key respects: First, the range is just one measurement of spread of a department's score's spread, and it... Continue Reading →
The other day, I had to calculate the weighted mean, standard deviation, and variance of a dataset using Python and I struggled to find reliable guidance that explained how the calculation worked. Here, I'll explain how I performed the calculations using the math and statistics libraries. Why use weighed values? Many of us assign different... Continue Reading →
I taught two sections of Critical Reasoning per semester at Yonsei University UIC for the past three semesters. Due to the pandemic, the first of the three was fully online. The second was a blended format, with lectures delivered online and discussion held in-person. The third was fully in-person. Each discussion meetings had as its... Continue Reading →
Analyses by Frank Saunders Jr 