In The Liberal Mind, I think Professor Minogue dismisses the query “What is the essence of Liberalism?” for reasons which are proper, but I’ll discuss it anyway because I think it to be one of those ultimately futile lines of inquiry which can lead us to better ways of understanding human nature, especially in its … [Read more…]
About 20 years ago, a Ph.d. psychologist working for an executive placement firm told me that, out of all the people he’d ever tested or interviewed, I was the one least suited for life in a corporation. Some might say that to be good news in terms of the potential for good moral character, but … [Read more…]
Slowly do I move forward in my efforts to develop words and grammatical structures and concepts adequate to describing the social and moral setting of man as he learns to shape himself, his societies, his technologies, to better reflect and take advantage of the richness and complexity of God’s Creation. This richness and complexity can … [Read more…]
We’re flooded with information on the bad things which can happen to the brain and with some advice, or at least implied advice, on how to avoid many of them. For example, we Americans are obsessed with sports in which violence has become the main point of it all. We also send a significant percentage … [Read more…]
In several weblog entries, starting with A Thomistic Take on Madness and Modernism, I’ve spoken of the insight of the psychologist and polymath Louis Sass that there is an eerie similarity between schizophrenia and modern styles of art, literature, and thought. I’d highly recommend a serious read of Madness and Modernity: Insanity in the Light … [Read more…]
Families with tendencies towards autistic traits tend to cluster in regions with opportunities for the exercise of ‘systemizing’ skills: see the article Diagnosed Autism Is More Common in an IT-Rich Region, Study Finds for a discussion of this interesting yet less than surprising discovery. Specifically: The researchers predicted that autism spectrum conditions (ASC) would be … [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…]
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…]
I’ve finished reading Thomas S. Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions but I continue to think about the issues he raised. Some of his attempts to make sense of these “scientific revolutions” involve efforts to make sense of the language used by various groups of scientists. When talking about the need to use a assumption-loaded … [Read more…]
There’s a review, Language and spandrels, at the weblog of John Hawks which discusses the question: “How can there be one grammatical structure for all human beings if there is no known way to see selective pressures for the rules of grammar?” As the review notes, the famous linguist Noam Chomsky did a lot of … [Read more…]