A recurrent "motif" throughout much of MSOU is the importance of our choice of metaphors in enabling us to approach a true understanding of the world. What I primarily wanted to emphasize was that metaphors can both enlighten us, and lead us astray; In...
It's probably apparent (at least I hope it is!) that all of the previous posts have been circling around an issue that undoubtedly needs a clear and unequivocal statement in its own right. In part, I think I have been avoiding providing such a statement,...
My last post took its theme from the article by Helen Sword referenced in that post. It also reminded me of an issue that I had intended to return to after posting on it indirectly in at least two other posts. The issue is one that I am by no means comfortable...
Today, November 28th., there is on 3quarksdaily a very interesting article by Jay Tolson, commenting on a recent book by Jim Holt (Why Does The World Exist), also available directly from: http://theamericanscholar.org/questions-of-being/ Apart from the...
Like so many things––indeed, everything!––this blog is ever in process, so I can't be too distressed by not having successfully concluded the last post in convincing fashion . . . The following is my attempt to take it a bit further. The questions that...
I'm very aware that those of you who have already read MSOU may have been exasperated at my decision not to follow up there on the implications of every tendril reaching out to some larger meaning. This blog was undertaken specifically to make up for...
Why do we so often miss the point of what is actually going on in life, and in our lives? I think it must be because we are preoccupied with immediate issues, rather than with the processes that cause them to be issues in the first place. Issues seem...
Occasionally, things do come together, don't they? This post invites you to celebrate such an occasion, and pursue its implications. My goodness! Metaphysics, sociology, psychology, and the happenstance of immediate experience do come together, and we...
Greetings once more! This post has been triggered by my awareness that much more needs to be said about the issue raised in my last post ( "I'm just making this up as I go along."), and also by my having just read today the very interesting review of...
Since publishing my last post, I've been discovering the enormous value of articles published in the two recent (and inaugural) issues of Human Figurations, the on-line periodical recently initiated by the people at the Norbert Elias Foundation. Specifically,...
Oh dear! I'd hoped I could delay any comment on this almost indefinitely, but I apparently must not. (A new posting today on the Edge.org site "raises the ante"–– so I cannot any further delay comment.) Today's entry can be found at http://edge.org/conversation/on-iterated-prisoner-dilemma...
The title of this post is simply another way of impressing on all of us that our very survival as a species will depend on the degree to which we can contrive truly to see ourselves as if from the outside. It also depends on how far we can allow ourselves...
A couple of posts ago I referred briefly to Auguste Comte and led you to expect that I would return to discuss what he saw as the third phase of humankind's journey towards understanding of itself. Those of you who followed my advice to refer to Wikipedia...
I've experienced an interesting convergence of sensibilities over the past few days, and, quite apart from ruminating on the factors that combine to promote a new opening of mind to their existence, I'm presently trying to come to terms with what I think...
My last post was in part a rumination on my procrastination in following up on the implications of the last chapter of my book. (See also "Chapter Ten Revisited.") My emotional log jamb, however, as can perhaps be discerned in that last post, eventually...
Greetings,all! A lot has happened since September 2011, which was the ostensible "official" date of publication for Making Sense of Us (hereafter simply MSOU). Talk about 'the best laid plans...", though! Our attempts to get reviews in the major critical...
The title of this post comes from La Fontaine. In English, it translates as "A lynx towards our fellows; moles towards ourselves." In short, then, the whole line dramatizes that we are eager to see the deficiencies of others, and are blind to our own....
I'm just fresh from a protracted conversation over breakfast with my daughter Sarah, and the above quote came into my mind, I think, as a result of my recalling from our conversation a brief reference to the works of Joan Didion, and, particularly, to...
I've just been reading the excellent article in the Opinionator section of The New York Times, also posted today, July 25, on the 3quarksdaily site. It can be found also at http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/23/zombie-nouns/ I have posted a...
You'll have to forgive me. After the previous posting, I thought it would be a good idea to do something a little lighter in tone. The title is a bit of a tease, in fact, since I'm only ambivalently making fun of the term. A more serious (less playful)...
Upon reflection, I think my last post (on the commodification of ideas) was uncomfortably cryptic. I seemed to go off on a tangent. This, I'm afraid, is an unfortunate consequence of being so familiar with one's own thinking that one doesn't register...
The thrust of my last post, I think, is possibly open to misinterpretation, largely because of my lack of clarity in relation to what Zygmunt Bauman was in fact expressing in the article referenced there. I should clarify. Most people who may be considered...
I am drafting this post on the first anniversary of my very first public reading from Making Sense of Us: An Essay on Human Meaning, which took place at the Kitsilano branch of the Vancouver Public Library on April 27th, 2011. Such an anniversary is very...
I was a bit disconcerted yesterday to discover that the post I had just completed appears in the complete list of posts out of the actual chronological order. It was in fact completed after the "Lynx envers nos pareils" post. (The problem arises because...
One of the problems confronting me in the writing of this blog is that I do not know what to assume about its potential readers. Not only must I assume that only a few will have read the book, and will therefore have some idea of its central thrust; I...
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