David B. Suits
Professor Emeritus
Department of Philosophy
Rochester Institute of Technology
Rochester NY 14623
[email protected]
Publications on Epicureanism and death
- Epicurus and the Singularity of Death (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020; paperback 2021).
- “Death and Other Nothings”, The Philosophical Forum 43 (2012): 215–230.
- “Lucretius on Death and Re-Existence”, in Timothy Madigan and David Suits, eds., Lucretius: His Continuing Influence and Contemporary Relevance (Rochester, NY: RIT Press, 2011): 117–132.
- “An Epicurean Ideal”, Philosophy Now 70 (Nov/Dec 2008). External link
- “The Fixation of Satisfaction: Epicurus and Peirce on the Goal”, in Dane Gordon and David Suits, eds, Epicurus: His Continuing Influence and Contemporary Relevance (Rochester, NY: RIT Cary Graphic Arts Press, 2003): 139–155.
- “Why Death is Not Bad for the One Who Died”, American Philosophical Quarterly 38 (2001): 69–84. Reprinted in David Benatar, ed., Life, Death, and Meaning (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 3rd edn, 2016): 283–302.
Some older published essays
- “Out of the Chinese Room”, a very short dialogue in the philosophy of mind, slightly modified from its original as published in The Computers and Philosophy Newsletter, issue 4:1 + 4:2 (July 1989): 1–7. HTML version PDF version (See also in this connection my “Steep Cliff Arguments”, Argumentation 13 (1999): 127 – 137.)
- “On Hobbes’s Argument for Government”, Reason Papers 4 (1978): 1–16. PDF file
- “Some Considerations about the Discovery of Principles of Justice”, Eidos 1 (July, 1978): 50–67. (transcription) PDF file
- “On Locke’s Argument for Government”, Journal of Libertarian Studies 1 (1977): 195–203. PDF file
- “The Question of Political Action”, Option 4 (1977): 21–22, 29–30. (transcription) PDF file
Some unpublished essays
- An Introduction to Symbolic Logic — My 243-page textbook that I have used for years. Feel free to copy and distribute for students (or for any noncommercial purpose). PDF file
Chapter 1: Sentences and Connectives. 2: Arguments and Meta-Arguments. 3: The Method of Derivation. 4: The Tree Method. 5: Quantification. 6: Quantification and Trees. 7: Relations. 8: Derivations with Quantification. Appendix A: Venn Diagrams. Appendix B: An Introduction to Digital Logic. Appendix C: Prefix, Infix and Postfix Notation. Appendix D: Answers to Exercises. Glossary.
- “Experimenting with Hopfield Nets” — This fully-connected, single layer network demonstrates some interesting features of artificial neural networks: pattern recognition, pattern completion, and graceful degradation under damage. PDF file
- “A Simplified Drive-Reinforcement Model for Unsupervised Learning in Artificial Neural Networks” — A discussion of a simplified version of A. Harry Klopf’s drive-reinforcement model. The SDR model reproduces many of the features of classical conditioning. PDF file
- “Playing With Mazes” — A six-part essay on the creation, solving and fiddling around with mazes. PDF file
A Timeline of major Western philosophers and some related persons and events
Last update: 23 January 2023Fun
- Aviation perSuits — A series of picture puzzles about aviation-related matters.
- Games — Some simple computer games.