Author Archives

I’ve completed all but defence of my thesis for a masters in philosophy. My disciplinary interest is in the acquisition and maintenance of our beliefs. But I also have a background in the study of rhetoric, linguistics, and philosophy of language. Political rhetoric particularly interests me.

• Introducing Theodicy. What on earth is a Theodicy?!

  By pammentations on August 16, 2019 • ( 6 )

  Loosely speaking, a theodicy is an attempt to explain why God allows evil in the world. More particularly, it’s an attempt to answer The Problem of Evil; that is, to give an account of how the existence of God and… Read More ›

• Views from a Narrowboat

  By pammentations on July 25, 2019 • ( 1 )

  I took these photos whilst pointing my lens out the window of a narrowboat on an English canal, first one way and then the other. (You can see the change in direction of the wake.) We’d travelled a short distance… Read More ›

• The day the Russians nuked my sawmill camp. A survivor’s memoir.

  By pammentations on May 14, 2019 • ( 0 )

  Prelude: After 44 years, my memory of this late cold-war-era event is not perfect. But it left an impression that planted seeds for my future interest in social epistemology, the social dimension of knowledge. Perhaps as something like Y2K will… Read More ›

• On Judging Facts. Three Quotes Worth Comparing: Hobbes, Mill, Lippmann.

  By pammentations on May 9, 2019 • ( 3 )

  “And as in arithmetic, unpracticed men must, and professors themselves may often err and cast up false, so also in any other subject of reasoning, the ablest, most attentive, and most practised men may deceive themselves and infer false conclusions,… Read More ›

• Some grey morning.

  By pammentations on May 2, 2019 • ( 0 )

  

  But for the use of the zoom lens, I’ve made no adjustments to this photo. Some mornings just are this grey. Dull, heavy, wet. I’d have missed this remarkable view had I let these things deter me from a walk. 

• Social Epistemology, 5 Short Examples (suitable for a class)

  By pammentations on April 29, 2019 • ( 1 )

  You can’t fact check every little thing and still have friends. Can you imagine what a jerk I’d be if I insisted on fact checking everything everyone says to me? Tammy: I went to the mall this morning. Pam: Did… Read More ›

• NUANCE: Beyond a world of black and white. Some time required.

  By pammentations on April 27, 2019 • ( 1 )

  

  Nuance takes more time than most of us have. Or allow ourselves.

• On aging.

  By pammentations on April 27, 2019 • ( 0 )

  

  Like this knocker, my hands have given so many years of service. They’ve been tireless and strong, standing up to water, heat, and cold. And, like this knocker, they’ve been taken by the hands of others.

• Community and Alienation, 4 Vignettes

  By pammentations on April 26, 2019 • ( 0 )

  

  A Community of Sufferers* I’m having a meal with my husband at a pub in Bristol, delighting in the warm and jovial conversation of the three older men having a pint at the neighbouring table. By their camaraderie, I  assume they’ve… Read More ›

• Five Human Commonalities. Intro by Thomas Hobbes.

  By pammentations on April 22, 2019 • ( 3 )

  Intro. We are equally vulnerable. Nature hath made men so equal in the faculties of body and mind, as that, thought there be found one man sometimes manifestly stronger in body or of quicker mind than another, yet when all… Read More ›