Critical thoughts on feminism and social constructionism
On various pages of this website and blog I've criticized some of the dogmas of feminism, for instance the social constructionist dogmas...
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- Jul 9, 2021
- 9 min
The truth about gender
Some months ago I saw Richard Dawkins recommend on Twitter a new book called The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths about Sex and...
- Jun 15, 2021
- 11 min
On humans' language faculty
You may have heard of the “talking gorilla” Koko. I remember as a child reading about this fascinating creature that had been trained to...
- Jun 6, 2021
- 20 min
Reflecting on life at 40
…They accuse me -- Me -- the present writer of The present poem -- of -- I know not what -- A tendency to under-rate and scoff At human...
- May 26, 2021
- 6 min
The miraculous brain
[Old notes.] I’m reading Stanislas Dehaene’s Consciousness and the Brain: Deciphering How the Brain Codes Our Thoughts (2014). Good book,...
- Sep 6, 2020
- 19 min
Journal-notes on cognitive science
[From 2015.] Reading a bunch of articles on cognitive development. A fascinating field. Interesting: Human infants who receive little...
- Sep 1, 2020
- 5 min
Biology and destiny
[Notes from ten years ago.] I’m amazed at the extent of our culture’s cult of secrecy in matters of the body. Even in this age, people...
- Aug 12, 2020
- 4 min
Fragments on the phenomenology of sexual attraction
[From 2010.] The psychology of sex is fascinating. For example, why are women sometimes attracted to “innocent” young men, “pure,”...
- Jul 30, 2020
- 16 min
The heartbreak of staggering self-consciousness
Today I came across a copy of Dave Eggers' Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and was reminded of myself in my twenties, when I was...
- Jul 19, 2019
- 7 min
A plea for honesty in discussions of sex and gender
A recent article of mine, called "Political Correctness Is Getting Out of Hand," elicited some angry emails. Not from people who...
- Dec 27, 2018
- 3 min
The meaning of life
[Excerpts from this book. See also this blog post, "Excerpts on happiness."] The meaning of life?— Life is not totally “meaningless.”...
- Jul 30, 2018
- 4 min
Old notes on etymology
The profundity of language.— You can gain great insight into the human condition, into the nature of the mind, by studying the evolution...
- Jul 22, 2018
- 2 min
Marxism and Meadism
August, 2007.— Here’s one of the many parallels between Marxism and 'Meadism' [i.e., George Herbert Mead's system of thought]: “Human...
- May 26, 2018
- 3 min
Existentialist thoughts on David Foster Wallace
[From 2008. Copied here, somewhat irrelevantly, in recognition of the recent suicides that have been in the news.] Read an article in...
- May 20, 2018
- 10 min
D. W. Winnicott on playing
Here are some old disjointed notes on a classic book by the psychoanalyst D. W. Winnicott. I happen to be skeptical of psychoanalysis,...
- May 16, 2018
- 3 min
Random thoughts on the self
Phenomenological explorations of consciousness and the self have always fascinated me, and over the years I've taken reams of notes on...
- Mar 25, 2018
- 7 min
Excerpts on moral pathologies
[From Notes of an Underground Humanist.] How is mass inhumanity possible?— When I ask myself how it’s possible that so many white...
- Jul 14, 2016
- 6 min
"Awakenings," and the power of music
[From 2008.] Reading Oliver Sacks’s Awakenings, which is about his experiences with post-encephalitic, Parkinsonian patients. It’s a good...
- Jun 23, 2016
- 2 min
The utility of "God"
I attended my first Episcopalian service last night [in April 2010]. It was Maundy Thursday, so we did the whole foot-washing thing and...
- Jan 4, 2016
- 6 min
Two interpretations of love
Max Scheler’s Ressentiment (1912), while dated and silly in some respects, is worth reading. Scheler is a semi-Nietzsche in his...