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, 20219 min read
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, 202111 min read
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, 202120 min read
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, 20216 min read
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, 202019 min read
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, 20205 min read
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, 20204 min read
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, 202016 min read
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, 20197 min read
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, 20183 min read
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, 20184 min read
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, 20182 min read
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, 20183 min read
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, 201810 min read
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, 20183 min read
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, 20187 min read
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, 20166 min read
"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, 20162 min read
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, 20166 min read
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...
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