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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 4, 2020
2 min

I was feeling rather metaphysical last night

David Graeber died. At 59. Tomorrow, you or I might die. At any moment. Meanwhile, we pretend life has meaning. Eventually, we will die....

Sep 4, 2020
39 min

The Workers' Bill

Here's the last section of chapter 6 of my dissertation on the unemployed in Chicago during the Depression. The previous two sections are...

Sep 3, 2020
66 min

On the Unemployed Councils and the Chicago Workers' Committee

The last chapter of my dissertation on the unemployed in Chicago during the Great Depression is, I think, more interesting than the...

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 31, 2020
10 min

On Wittgenstein and Quine

Wittgenstein is an odd case. I've always had the impression that his early work, the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, is genius—and not...

Aug 27, 2020
21 min

The remarkable perversity of idealism

Many years ago, when I was a simple boy who thought he ought to know a lot about Hegel, I took masses of notes on his philosophy. Below...

Aug 23, 2020
36 min

The radical dimensions of mass consciousness, part 2

Here's the sequel to this post, on my preference for anti-Gramscianism. It's from the last chapter of my Ph.D. thesis. I'm putting it on...

Aug 23, 2020
51 min

The radical dimensions of mass consciousness, part 1

I'm kind of a "vulgar Marxist." In this respect, I suppose I'm a lot like people in the American ruling class, except that their values...

Aug 22, 2020
23 min

The definition of knowledge

Philosophers have a tendency to treat questions that revolve around the meaning of a particular concept as if they are more substantive...

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,”...

Aug 11, 2020
59 min

The relativity of values

Back in my twenties I had an intellectual and creative energy I don't have anymore. I was consumed by philosophy, jumping from topic to...

Aug 7, 2020
10 min

Detritus from a dead poetic imagination

Life in the 21st century as we all wait consciously or unconsciously for the apocalypse is boring and driven by distractions, an endless...

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...

Jun 28, 2020
7 min

Old student notes on random philosophy articles

Sometimes I like to return to philosophy in order to get the sort of intellectual stimulation that reading history doesn't provide. E.g.,...

Jun 14, 2020
19 min

Critical remarks on Thomas Nagel

[From 2009.] I’m reading Thomas Nagel’s famous book The View From Nowhere (1986). Nagel seems more sensible than most contemporary...

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.”...

Dec 22, 2018
1 min

On realism and idealism

Over the years I've written a lot of reflections on the metaphysical issue of scientific realism vs. anti-realism or idealism. Idealism...

Dec 4, 2018
9 min

On the meaning of 'knowledge'

[Philosophical notes from 2005.] Reading a collection called Contemporary Debates in Epistemology (eds. Steup and Sosa) for class. I'm...

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...

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