Here we are in the goldfish bowl

Annie Dillard's descriptions of collective self-consciousness are unmatched. When we're truly awake we know we're in a "goldfish bowl" of mutual shared awareness. Will we waste this opportunity, while the lights are on, or use it well? That's also the challenge of the classroom.

I am sitting here looking at a goldfish bowl and busting my brain. Ich kann nicht anders. I am sitting here, you are sitting there... Here we are...

Philosophy and Addiction - NYTimes.com

Philosophy and Addiction - NYTimes.com:

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Following Jesus

"Jesus" uses twitter purely for information and self-expression. Me too.

Their creator wants to know "why the scare quotes? That really is Jesus!"

@JandMo I tell my students J & M are just 2 guys. Don't want any inquisitions or fatwas here in middle Tennessee!

"Beginning of Infinity"

Where does infinity begin? I don't know what that question means, but I have been enjoying David Deutsch's Beginning of Infinity. He has harsh words for classical Empiricism (as do we Radical Empiricists) and other species of "bad philosophy" that by his reckoning deny the possibility of progress. And he offers a charming revery featuring Socrates himself.

Ron Paul's 15 Most Extreme Positions | Mother Jones

He's a crank, but evidently so is a huge chunk of the electorate. So we do have to pay attention to

Ron Paul's 15 Most Extreme Positions | Mother Jones:

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Most salient to me are his disgraceful repudiation of public action on behalf of civil & human rights and the environment:

Believes that climate change is no big deal and the Environmental Protection Agency is unnecessary. Most environmental problems can be addressed by enforcing private-property rights. Paul also thinks that interstate issues such as air pollution are best dealt with through compacts between states.

Would not have voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964because it was a "massive violation of private property and contract, which are the bedrocks of a free society."

Barry Goldwater was wrong. Extremism in defense of liberty is a vice.

"I wake up"

Has anyone before Winifred Gallagher ever thought to mention Keith Richards and William James in the same sentence?

...when Keith Richards is asked how he feels when he emerges on-stage to confront a hundred thousand screaming fans, he says simply, “I wake up."

...In life's best moments, whether we're writing a book or a letter, making love or dinner, that's how we are, too: awake, focused, rapt.

Chiropractic: An Indefensible Profession - Skeptical Health : Skeptical Health

This is a strong but slanted indictment. I'm skeptical too, but a healing profession is truly "indefensible" only if no one can plausibly claim to have benefited from its therapeutic ministrations. Some of my best friends are chiropractors, one in particular, and she has too many defenders to ignore.

Chiropractic: An Indefensible Profession - Skeptical Health : Skeptical Health:

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Sisyphus squared

Must we still imagine him happy?

Merry Cosmic Christmas

For Carl, Darwin's insight that life evolved over the eons through natural selection was not just better science than Genesis, it also afforded a deeper, more satisfying spiritual experience...

Good Minus God: The Moral Atheist - NYTimes.com

Louise Antony edited one of the texts we'll be reading in "Atheism & Philosophy," beginning in January. We'll probably add The Hitch, too.

Meanwhile, here's a stocking stuffer: The Atheist's Guide to Christmas.

Good Minus God: The Moral Atheist - NYTimes.com:

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