Creatively Advancing into Novelty
“…the call for “proof” is about as singularly meaningless a demand as one could imagine. Because once one moves out of the purely formal situations where one effectively exercises complete control over “both sides of the equation” (useful premises on the one hand, interesting and appealing conclusions on the other), then matters become genuinely difficult….
Humans are infinitely concerned about the infinity to which they belong, from which they are separated, and for which they are longing. –Paul Tillich (Paraphrase) I recently listened to Ryan Bell’s enjoyable interview with LeRon Shults. I really like listening to both Ryan and LeRon converse; they’re both super smart and interesting people and I’m…
“Warmongers often claim that they are only being realistic, that peace is a great idea and all but that’s just not how the world works. This claim of realism is often just a narrowing of events and an ignoring of the context of the situation. It’s not being realistic, but simplistic. They claim to be…
“I think the existence of zombies would contradict certain laws of nature in our world. It seems to be a law of nature, in our world, that when you get a brain of a certain character you get consciousness going along with it.” –David Chalmers I’m fascinated by the philosophy of mind. I find thinking…
“Carson’s grasp of history, politics, emotional intelligence, social norms, government procedure, and even his own backstory seems variable and thin…How, as Paul Waldman recently wrote, could Ben Carson be both “so incredibly smart and so spectacularly stupid?”” The above quote comes from an article in The Atlantic titled “Running for President isn’t Brain Surgery” (Great…
“Whitehead’s novel solution to this paradox regarding the irreconcilable notions of “fact” is to construe the concrete simultaneity of an actual occasion’s specious present as a local, rather than a global, fact. Such a construal entails rejecting the often implicit ontologization of the Einsteinian notion of a ready-made 4-dimensional fabric of space-time “out there” within…
“The American youth who open fire on their peers, neighbors, classmates, and teachers offer us the opportunity and the impetus to grapple with a contradiction at the heart of the USA. For what are these “mad” youth doing but applying the approved and honored teachings and techniques of American society…just in the ‘wrong place’ and…
“I agree there are differences between race and gender. The differences have to do precisely with the unique forms of oppression that have been constellated in relation to each historically. I’m less convinced by attempts to draw lines separating “culture” from “nature.” It’s misleading to simply say that gender is learned (and so contingent) and…
“But the culture is changing at a rate faster than their education and values have trained them to accept. That in itself is a form of oppression—to neglect some people from educational and economic opportunity, then judge them when they can’t get on board with the agenda of the more progressive element of society.” Richard…
“A plague is upon us, he warns. Harmless jokesters and joy-bringers are literally being figuratively strangled by the long, thin goblin-fingers of “political correctness” (which is a fancy term for “not treating people who are already treated like garbage like garbage”), even though all they were trying to do was just say anything they want…