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...
Wright's Writing
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- 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 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
- 35 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
- 54 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
- 25 min
The radical dimensions of mass consciousness, part 2
Here's the sequel to this post, from the last chapter of my Ph.D. thesis. It's just an excerpt. The main point of it is to argue against...
- Aug 23, 2020
- 45 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...