Creatively Advancing into Novelty
“[W]hen we survey the living world, animal and vegetable, there are bodies of all types. Each living body is a society, which is not personal. But most of the animals, including all the vertebrates, seem to have their social system dominated by a subordinate society which is ‘personal’… Thus in one sense a dog is…
“The ontology of this Marxian framework treats society as a complex of social relations among social individuals. This primacy of relations enables Marxian thought to avoid the unreal dichotomy of “the individual” versus “the society.” There are no real individuals standing outside of and prior to the relational nexus: each becomes a specific individual in…
“From the perspective of environmental ethics, astrology might seem irresponsibly otherworldly and anthropocentric, not unlike other spiritual traditions. Even if it touts a stewardship ethic or ecofeminist care ethic that would mitigate it’s anthropocentric focus, wouldn’t such an astrological application of such a caring ethic entail ethical attention to planets other than Earth, and couldn’t…
“Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.” – Salvador Dali I know lots of people who have made relatively honest and minor mistakes at their workplace and have then been disciplined for it. These sort of scenarios always get me thinking about human nature and how, when we talk about mistakes, excellence,…
“The rise of the buffered identity has been accompanied by an interiorization; that is, not only the Inner/Outer distinction, that between Mind and World as separate loci, which is central to the buffer itself; and not only the development of this Inner/Outer distinction in a whole range of epistemological theories of a mediational type from…
“For Wittgenstein, the problem with Cartesian dualism isn’t the distinction between mental and physical states. The problem is the metaphysical understanding of that distinction in terms of an inner-outer dualism. We use the word “inner” in everyday word use to talk about mental states, sensations, thoughts, images, moods, intentions, etc. That’s fine. The metaphysical problem…
“I look at you, and what I see is pathetic. We ain’t nothin’ alike. You’re just a child.” –Teddy speaking to Craddock, Westworld Season 2 ep. 3 I wrote a fb post recently expressing some thoughts on Westorld Season 2 after watching ep. 4. My friend Kev and I had a great chat and ended…
“In light of this, we think that the picture emerging from evolutionary and developmental biology is – contrary to the widespread opinion among contemporary philosophers – one that very much supports the notion of human nature, just not an essentialist one. Human nature is best conceived of as a cluster of homeostatic properties, ie of…
“I would say that selfhood as we humans normally conceive of it emerges as we master language. As Whitehead says in “Adventures of Ideas” (I summarize), the account of the 6th day should be written, “He gave them language, and they became souls.” I think we can make distinctions between degrees of nonconscious experience (particles,…
“Rather than experience depending on consciousness, consciousness presupposes experience” –Whitehead (PR 83) I have often wondered about the claim (largely found in Eastern spirituality) that Gurus, for instance, can attain a permanent “state” of enlightenment where they are perfectly in-tune with an Ultimate Reality. I confess that I am in large part an egalitarian;…