This is my new blog and, although I don’t expect many to read it, I hope some find it interesting. First it might be helpful to give you some information about myself…
Googling my name won’t help much. Your more likely to come up with a rather prominent German pain researcher. I have done some research in visual perception at UW-Madison but I’m pretty much at the beginning of my life/career therefore the web has little to say about my existence. For the time being I’m an employee of the psychology department here in Madison, working in the visual perception laboratory of Prof. Rick Cai. This means that I’m quite interested in the entire puzzle of perception. However, the more work I’ve done in psychology, the more I’ve realized that I’ll probably end up doing PhD work in philosophy instead; it takes a certain attitude to do intensive studies in an empirical science…because getting data really is quite a pain. So although I greatly appreciate those who do enjoy doing the empirical thing, I’m not sure it is something I would like to do for the rest of my life.
I will likely comment soon enough on some of my philosophical views, though they are mostly skeptical in nature. I recognize that it is a bit cheap to mostly be a critic but it all sort of goes along with a general principal that I’ve favored lately; the world is a really strange and confusing place so if you think you have a theory about it, you are likely wrong. This goes along with another general thought which I favor; don’t be a jerk about your views because you’re probably wrong. I am by no means saying that we can know nothing, or that science is a waste of time; I simply think we should be humble with our views, lest we turn into….. well…. jerks.