Continuum Philosophical Insight
Philosophical Consulting and Education
Note: this is excised rough material from the draft of a book that will be in the works for likely many years. It is a bit choppy and derived partially from teaching material. Notes have not been formatted. It has been posted here as I often pick on Hume on social media, but haven't the …
My lack of blog entries lately is not due to lack of desire or effort; only a lack of time. Projects and request always seem to stack up all at once. That said, I do have some exciting things coming up soon and others on the horizon. First, I am nearing completion on a short …
Aquinas—unlike some others of his time, before his time, and even after his time—did not always underestimate the potency of non-human animals’ estimative capacity by reducing it to “instinct”: that is, to an inborn, unchanging, “pre-programmed” routine of how to deal with environmental factors. As we know now, in an endeavor accelerated by the investigative …
In Defense of Monoamory, or Why Open Relationships aren’t for Anyone Most human thinking is determined not by free investigation of beings, let alone of being, but by the ephemeral vogue. This is true no less in philosophy than in more popular culture; only, within the ivoried walls of the academy, sophisticated language routinely obscures …
A review of Kate Manne’s Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny (Oxford University Press: New York, 2018). “So maybe the thing to say,” to the apathetic, indifferent masses perniciously ignorant about the misogyny prevailing in our culture, Manne writes near the end of her book (page 290, to be precise), “somewhat reluctantly is—fuck ‘em, in …
Continue reading "Semantic Activism in the Service of Ideology"
What is a habit? Hearing the term, we think of: addictions (cigarettes, heroin, cocaine, masturbation), tendencies (leaning to the left in our chairs, putting one’s head in the right hand when bored, looking inappropriately at people we find attractive), or patterns (coffee in the morning, television in the evening, hygiene before bed). In every habit, …
A review of Carrie Jenkins' What Love Is: And What It Could Be (Basic Books: NY. 2017). “Romantic love”, Carrie Jenkins writes near the end of her book, “cannot continue to be something we just stumble into and accept.” This is true, and Jenkins’ book does instigate questioning after the truth of what romantic love is …
When Wilhelm Wundt distinguished the study of psychology from philosophy and biology in the late 19th century, he was filling a void: both philosophical and biological treatments had failed in their treatment of the human psyche and a new approach seemed not only warranted, but necessary. Philosophy had, for the most part, remained in an …
Continue reading "Thoughts on Being Human [4] – Cognitive Faculties"
