The 21st Century Monads are an international musical collaboration whose songs address fundamental issues in philosophy, including specialized topics in contemporary analytic philosophy and the history of philosophy. The musical genres range from dance to folk. The songs are unique, original songs, written and recorded by the band in their home studios.
We provide our songs to you for free. If you enjoyed them,
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a higher quality uncompressed 16 bit/44.1khz version of the songs.
Details in this blog post.
Music by Kris McDaniel, Carrie Jenkins, Ben Bradley and Hille Paakkunainen.
Lyrics by Kris McDaniel.
Ben Bradley — electric bass, electric guitar
Carrie Jenkins — vocals, piano
Hille Paakkunainen — edrums
Kris McDaniel — vocals, electric guitar, edrums
Carrie’s parts were recorded by Carrie in Nottingham.
Kris’, Ben’s and Hille’s parts recorded by Kris, Ben and Hille in Syracuse.
Song mixed by Kris McDaniel.
I’m an achiever
I deserve credit for what I know
No mere true believer
I’m like an archer with her bow
And when I make the shot
It manifests the skills that I got
Bad evidence, I got no truck
You make your own epistemic luck
I’m an achiever
It’s why my knowledge is valuable
Without the virtues
The value problem would be unsolvable
But what about testimony?
Answering this question is a must
But there’s still epistemic agency
You’ve just got to know who to trust
Oh no! I’ve been Gettiered!
But I’ve still got understanding
I’ve still got understanding
Music by Kris McDaniel, Carrie Jenkins, Ben Bradley, and Hille Paakkunainen.
Lyrics by Kris McDaniel and Carrie Jenkins
Ben Bradley — electric bass
Carrie Jenkins — vocals, piano
Kris McDaniel — acoustic guitar, electric guitar, organ
Hille Paakkunainen — edrums
Carrie’s parts were recorded by Carrie in Nottingham and by Kris and Carrie in Syracuse.
Kris’, Ben’s and Hille’s parts recorded by Kris, Ben and Hille in Syracuse.
Song mixed by Kris McDaniel.
When I look in your eyes
Is there another mind
Looking back from behind
And these feelings inside
Could you recognize them if you tried
To empathize
Or are you a zombie?
Is your body nothing more than an empty glove?
Are you a zombie?
A mere physical duplicate of someone who I would have loved
Who I could love?
I know it’s not right
Inferring others’ mental states
By induction from a single case
But I keep trying to find
Something that I just cannot read in your face
Or in your embrace.
Oh are you a zombie?
Do you really have the feelings you seem to express?
Or are you a zombie?
Is it conceptually possible that you lack any consciousness?
Even a little consciousness?
Recorded by the 21st Century Monads in Syracuse.
Song mixed by Kris McDaniel.
I need to finish two of my papers
A referee report is overdue
I have essays that I need to write comments for
But unfortunately I’m screwed
My dog thought the power cable was his leash
And before I could move or speak
Ranger yanked on the cord
And the laptop bounced all over the room
All over the room
I took it to the computer people
And they assured me that I was OK
Although the hard drive was completely shattered
My work had been automatically saved
But it turned out that they were mistaken
Certainly mistakes were made
Although the data that had been on the server for the last six months
Had been accidentally erased
Yeah my hard drive is dead
But I’m praying for an afterlife
So I’m emailing you in the hope
That you might have an earlier draft
Of one of my papers
And if so please reply
So all my work for the last six months
Isn’t lost
“I Want to Make Sweet Love to Wisdom” M4A / MP3 / OGG
Music by Kris McDaniel, Ben Bradley, Hille Paakkunainen, and Carrie Jenkins.
Lyrics by Kris McDaniel
Carrie Jenkins — vocals
Ben Bradley — electric bass
Kris McDaniel — vocals, piano, electric guitar, synthesizers
Hille Paakkunainen — edrums
Recorded by the 21st Century Monads in Syracuse.
Song mixed by Kris McDaniel.
The object of my ardour’s not a boy or a girl
The object of my ardour’s not of this world
The thing that I love can be touched only by a mind
But this love that I’m feeling ain’t the Platonic kind
I want to make sweet love to wisdom
When I ride the subway, I get funny looks
’cause I’m searching for wisdom in dusty old books
And the librarian is always telling me to keep it down
But I can’t hide the joy I feel when wisdom is found
Like everything beautiful, it is tyrannical
Although it ain’t concrete, I want to get physical
So when people tell me that I’m being dumb
I say I don’t care about smart
I only want wisdom
I want to make sweet love to wisdom
Spent my life searching for my other half
I went to all the lectures in the symposium
All the wrestling with boys and the tumbling with girls
And I still couldn’t find the One
I was feeling misdirected
Until I found dialectic
And what the Sophists didn’t know
That they didn’t know
What the Sophists didn’t know
That they didn’t know
Is all I know
Is the art of love
Carrie’s parts recorded by Kris and Carrie in Vancouver and Syracuse.
Kris’, Ben’s and Hille’s parts recorded by Kris, Ben and Hille in Syracuse.
So the paper is done. It was pretty OK,
But there’s something to say.
Something that really could move things along,
Not just saying it’s wrong.
Not just making myself look good
(Although it would).
So I’m trying to be clear here my hand’s in the air.
Come on now the chair.
I’m not quite sure but I think that he saw,
But I’ll check in once more
So he knows I’m all set, my question’s rehearsed
And I could be his first.
Call on me …
I’m waiting here for you to call on me.
Question time’s ticking, I’m still in the queue.
Well between me and you,
Most of the obvious stuff has been done,
But my point’s still to come
And this one person’s being incredibly slow.
Fifteen minutes to go.
Call on me …
I’m waiting here for you to call on me.
Did the chair miss my hand?
Is it time I took a stand?
Is there anything I could do or say
To make him look my way?
Now the big names have all been called, some of them twice.
That’s not very nice.
He’s scanning the room like he’s trying to take stock;
Now he’s checking the clock.
It’s time to admit things are not looking great,
But we started late …
Call on me …
I’m waiting here for you to call on me.
Call on me …
I’m waiting here for you, waiting here for you,
Waiting here for you to call on me.
All parts recorded by Kris, Ben, Carrie and Hille in Syracuse.
I can’t stop buying books
I got more than I need
They’re stacked high up to the ceiling
I got no room to read
Oh lord why don’t you come
And take this sickness away from me?
Because these stacks of books are so heavy
These stacks of books are so heavy
I’ve got Bentham’s correspondence
Volumes one and volumes three
But I don’t got volume two
And don’t you know that it’s haunting me
Oh lord why don’t you come
And take this sickness away from me?
Because these stacks of books are so heavy
Stacks of books are so heavy
Stacks of books are so heavy
Stacks of books are so heavy
And I can’t breathe
Music by Kris McDaniel, Ben Bradley, Hille Paakkunainen and Carrie Jenkins.
Lyrics by Kris McDaniel.
Ben Bradley — electric guitar, bass guitar, keyboards
Carrie Jenkins — vocals
Kris McDaniel — vocals, electric guitar
Hille Paakkunainen — edrums
Recorded by the 21st Century Monads in Syracuse.
Mixed by Kris McDaniel.
You better watch what you say
You better watch what you say
If you don’t know it
Or you will violate
A constitutive norm
Do you want that?
Do you want that, do you want that?
It’s a constitutive norm
And it’s been in place since before you were born
There are rules to every game
And assertion is no exception
If you don’t care about knowing
You might as well be just be emoting
Music by Kris McDaniel, Ben Bradley, Carrie Jenkins, and Hille Paakkunainen.
Lyrics by Kris McDaniel and Ben Bradley.
Ben Bradley — vocals, acoustic guitar, electric bass
Carrie Jenkins — vocals
Kris McDaniel — banjitar, electric slide guitar
Hille Paakkunainen — edrums
Recorded by the 21st Century Monads in Syracuse.
Mixed by Kris McDaniel.
I'm more organized than my peers
I have a calm and even tone
But now I'm pounding back beers
And crying alone
I did good work on committees
And supervising undergrad studies
And my sentence for these crimes
Is six years time
I don't want to be the chair
Running meetings is not my style
So if you take this cup from my lips
I'll make it worth your while
I don't want to be the chair
I don't think I'm the guy
To manage interpersonal conflicts
When they inevitably arise
Now they call me the Lazy Monad
But it's not about being lazy
It's a matter of sanity and basic human dignity
What would I sacrifice
To get out of being chair?
My left testicle
Maybe French fries for a year
I don't want to be the chair
Balancing the budget sheets
And when we come up short
To have to grovel to the dean
I don't want to be the chair
Don't even know who the vice-provost is
Or who of the other administrators'
Butts I have to kiss
My friends told me I'm a moron
For agreeing to take this on
I should have listened to the Bastard
Who helped to write this song
So I'll kiss my kids goodbye
Across the border I will go
Let some other sucker be chair
The sun's warm in Mexico
I don't want to be the chair
Not even for a year
That's how long the PEH did it
Before she disappeared
I don't want to be the chair
All responsibility and no power
I don't want to be the chair
I'd rather be food for the flowers
I don't want to be the chair
No, I don't want to be the chair
No, I don't want to be the chair
Music by Kris McDaniel, Ben Bradley, Hille Paakkunainen, Carrie Jenkins.
Lyrics by Kris McDaniel.
Ben Bradley – electric guitar, electric bass
Carrie Jenkins – vocals
Kris McDaniel – electric 12-string guitar, electric guitar, synthesizers
Hille Paakkunainen – edrums
Recorded by the 21st Century Monads in Syracuse.
Mixed by Kris McDaniel.
The nothing noths
The nothing noths
And in this world, one is thrown
Every Dasein dies alone
The nothing noths
The nothing noths
Comportment is necessary to understand
Don’t treat me like I’m present at hand
Into the clearing
Where the truth of being is unconcealing
But we won’t find its meaning
Unless an existential analytic is proceeding
We’re into the clearing
Where phenomena aren’t mere appearings
We are there-being
And being-towards-the-death-that-is-nearing
The nothing noths
The nothing noths
And in this world, one is thrown
In each case Dasein’s death is mine own
The nothing noths
The nothing noths
Comportment is necessary to understand
Don’t treat me like I’m present-at-hand
The nothing noths
The nothing noths
The nothing noths
Music by Kris McDaniel, Ben Bradley, Hille Paakkunainen, Carrie Jenkins.
Lyrics by Kris McDaniel and Ben Bradley.
Ben Bradley — electric 12-string guitar, electric bass
Carrie Jenkins — vocals
Kris McDaniel — electric guitar, hand percussion, synthesizers
Hille Paakkunainen — edrums
Recorded by the 21st Century Monads in Syracuse
Mixed by Kris McDaniel.
Death, Death, Death
Death is bad for a cow
Death is bad for a cow
Listen to me and I will tell you how
When you take that cow to the butcher’s knife
You deprive the cow of the goods the goods of her future life
Don’t need to have a sense of self over time
Or know what it means to reach the end of the line
Death is a serious harm
Even if, even if you live on a farm
Music by Kris McDaniel, Ben Bradley, Carrie Jenkins, Hille Paakkunainen.
Lyrics by Kris McDaniel.
Ben Bradley — bass guitar, electric 12 string guitar, 12-string acoustic guitar, electric guitar, vocals
Carrie Jenkins — vocals
Kris McDaniel — vocals, electric guitar, electric slide guitar, synthesizers
Hille Paakkunainen — edrums
Recorded by the 21st Century Monads in Syracuse.
Mixed by Kris McDaniel.
I admit I lost my faith
When I felt the shake from a Lisbon quake
And I could not believe
This is how things ought to be
So I wondered from place to place
But the evils of the human race
They made themselves apparent
That they were inherent
My life felt like someone else’s dream
And that’s when it came to me, and I could see
This is not the actual world
Yeah we’re in world 223
And a world like this must in some sense be
For God’s not choosing it to be praiseworthy
And what else could explain
This seeming random distribution of pleasure and pain?
On the just and the unjust alike
Falls the same rain
This theodicy it might seem odd
But it helped me make my peace with God, and now I see
Music by Kris McDaniel, Ben Bradley, Carrie Jenkins, Hille Paakkunainen
Lyrics by Kris McDaniel
Ben Bradley — bass guitar, violin, glockenspiel, hand percussion
Carrie Jenkins — vocals
Kris McDaniel — vocals, classical guitar, mandolin, hand percussion
Hille Paakkunainen — edrums
Recorded by the 21st Century Monads in Syracuse.
Mixed by Kris McDaniel.
These arrows in my head
To troubles they have led
To puzzles and to mysteries
To things that happened then
To things that have never been
To things that cannot be
This arrows in my head
One caught you in a thought
Are you real or not?
Is it the same from the inside?
Because they can point beyond
The world to which I belong
Although I’m only flesh and blood I can enjoy
Intentionality
Yes I’m just made of atoms in the void
But still I can enjoy the scene
And when I move around
All these objects can be found
Each and every one of them’s inside of me
Are you inside of me?
These arrows in my head
To troubles they have led
To puzzles and to mysteries
To things that happened then
To things that have never been
To things that cannot be
“Everybody Has to Carry Their Own Bag of Tropes” M4A / MP3 / OGG
Music by Kris McDaniel, Ben Bradley, Carrie Jenkins, Hille Paakkunainen
Lyrics by Kris McDaniel and Carrie Jenkins
Ben Bradley — piano, bass guitar, electric guitar
Carrie Jenkins — vocals
Kris McDaniel — vocals
Hille Paakkunainen — edrums
Recorded by the 21st Century Monads in Syracuse.
Mixed by Kris McDaniel.
Everybody’s got to carry their own bag of tropes
Everybody’s got to carry their own bag of tropes
You can choose them you can lose them
But there ain’t no chance
There ain’t no hope of transference
Babe I hope that you know just how much I care
I was hoping there would be some features we could share
But everybody dies alone
There’s nothing we can do
There ain’t no property in common between me and you
Everybody’s got to carry their own bag of tropes
Everybody’s got to carry their own bag of tropes
You can choose them you can lose them
But there ain’t no chance
There ain’t no hope of transference
Baby when I touch you I can feel you tremble
When you look at me you see that I resemble
But I want more than that
I want more than that
I want some nonspatiotemporal overlap
Everybody’s got to carry their own bag of tropes
Everybody’s got to carry their own bag of tropes
You can choose them you can lose them
But there ain’t no chance
There ain’t no hope of transference
I was hoping for imitation, it was just a rumor
There ain’t no universals out there, just particulars
We can try to co-partake but it just cannot be
It’s one bag of tropes for you babe and one bag for me
The Band
Kris McDaniel
“The Mereological Bastard”
Syracuse University personal website
Ben Bradley
“The Lazy Monad”
Syracuse University faculty page
Carrie Jenkins
“The Pre-Established Harmony”
University of British Columbia personal website
Hille Paakkunainen
“The Infinite Progression”
Syracuse University faculty page
![[Album art]](bigart/BodyMonadWorld.jpg)
![[Song art]](bigart/Achiever.jpg)
![[Song art]](bigart/Zombie.jpg)
![[Song art]](bigart/Hard_Drive.jpg)
![[Song art]](bigart/Sweet_Love.jpg)
![[Song art]](bigart/Call_on_Me.jpg)
![[Song art]](bigart/Books.jpg)
![[Song art]](bigart/Watch_What_You_Say.jpg)
![[Song art]](bigart/I_Dont_Want_to_Be_the_Chair.jpg)
![[Song art]](bigart/The_Nothing_Noths.jpg)
![[Song art]](bigart/Death_Is_Bad_For_A_Cow.jpg)
![[Song art]](bigart/This_Is_Not_The_Actual_World.jpg)
![[Song art]](bigart/These_Arrows_In_My_Head.jpg)
![[Song art]](bigart/Bag_of_Tropes.jpg)
![[Mereological Bastard]](smallart/mb.jpg)
![[Lazy Monad]](smallart/lm.jpg)
![[The Pre-Established Harmony]](smallart/tpeh.jpg)
![[The Infinite Progression]](smallart/ip.jpg)