Footnotes2Plato

“The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.”
–Alfred North Whitehead

Month: November 2010

  • Response to Kelosophy about Science and Materialism

    Kel’s blog: http://kelosophy.blogspot.com/ Hey Kel, So I’d much rather enter a dialogue with you here than on Pharyngula. It doesn’t seem to me to be the best place to critically discuss these issues. I hope that is okay with you. You wrote “What I worry about Matthew is that this [my comment that a scientific cosmology…

  • Where did the idea of “God” come from?

    My response to this comment about “God” being a childish idea from a more primitive age. Kev @ 45, Maybe. But I understand the evolution of human consciousness a bit differently. Your theory (that God was invented in our species’ infancy by childish minds who wanted an explanation for things) seems to me to inappropriately…

  • Purpose in Biology

    I couldn’t resist giving my two cents again over at Pharyngula. PZ Myers criticized the biologist and intelligent design theorist Michael Behe’s understanding of purpose in living systems. I’m not at all on board with Behe’s overall project (as you’ll see below), but I do think he is focusing on the right shortcomings in the…

  • A taste of what’s to come…

    Two abstracts for the papers I am writing for courses on Carl Jung and the Philosophy of Relgion, respectively. ————————————————— “Uncovering the Unconscious: Psychology and the Soul” William James credits W. H. Myers with the discovery of “subliminal consciousness” (i.e., the unconscious) in 1886, a discovery James’ suggests is psychology’s most important insight into human…

  • Nature as Spirit’s Symbol

    Emerson believed that Nature was emblematic of Spirit, that Her productivity and instinctuality were symbolic expressions of Its creative intelligence. If this be true, then the philosopher’s desire for a romantic partner is analgous to his or her desire for wisdom. The two are both erotic desires, though the one be for flesh and blood,…

  • Three Stanzas Remembered

    I remember more With each passing glance, With every standing trance That stalls me on my way. I am moved by that which gives All faces their romance, And frozen by the stare That makes me stay. But time cannot stand The memory of more Than what it makes unpleasant For me to understand.