Are we determined by our genes or by our environments? Yes. But, it’s not so simple as that. Those genes are us and we are part of those environments which are hardly independent of human technology — culture in general — these days. But the complications are still more than that. We are what’s shaped … [Read more…]
As I’ve noted in a couple of essays on this blog, schizophrenia is a terrible disease, even by the standards of psychiatric diseases. Yet, there’s something odd about even calling it a disease. See A Thomistic Take on Madness and Modernism for a discussion of schizophrenia in light of modern thought and aesthetic styles, which … [Read more…]
This article, How Do Neurons in the Retina Encode What We ‘See’?, points to the great effort our nervous system puts into the effort to make sense of perceptual input. One surprise is that the eyes don’t pick up some of the more complex patterns which change over time even though complex spatial patterns, say, … [Read more…]
Or rather, our moral disorder lies outside of us because we inhabit morally disordered human communities. But let me start from a ways back… Recently, I posted an article about some hormonal matters which work from our insides to shape our personality characteristics — The Resurrected Will Need to Be Flooded With Oxytocin and Vasopresin. … [Read more…]
I speak of my own mind moving in and out of active formation. I’ve reached a point where I wish to deal with issues that I can’t wrap my mind around. And, so, I’m trying to expand and reshape my mind in the appropriate ways, acquiring more of the contents which will become the container … [Read more…]
The brain-scientist and philosopher Patricia Churchland is giving some lectures on a specific and partial answer to the question: What can neuroscience tell us about morality? A short news article about these lectures can be found here. Her main point according to the article is hardly a surprise to those who’ve been keeping up at … [Read more…]
[This is a somewhat freewheeling response to Biblical Leadership — first given as a lecture in 1928, a chapter in the book On the Bible: Eighteen Studies, a collection of short writings taken from the various works of Martin Buber.] In the essay, Biblical Leadership, Martin Buber states: I believe that we are standing at … [Read more…]
See this article by David Henderson for a short and clear discussion of Hayek’s understanding of knowledge in light of the real-world problem of American incompetence, most especially when our governments move in to solve our problems or those of Afghan tribesmen. Professor Henderson puts the situation simply by saying: “Who has the relevant information … [Read more…]
Relationships of a more abstract sort, such as those in politics and economics, are not so much different from concrete relationships as we might think. Not so much different as we’ve led ourselves to believe. Those concrete entities which are more complex, such as a man or a rhinoceros, are made of substances which have … [Read more…]
I’m in the midst of revived efforts to explore modern knowledge of time, space, and matter to create an enriched and enlarged Christian understanding of Creation. My patterns of learning, contemplating, and writing are often interrupted by the horrifying spectacle of the United States decaying at a rapid rate and dragging with it a world … [Read more…]