Author Archives

I’ve completed all but defence of my thesis for a masters in philosophy. My disciplinary interest has been in the acquisition and maintenance of our beliefs. But I also have a background in the study of rhetoric, linguistics, and philosophy of language. I’m taking a hiatus from the student life, but am intellectually active. For example, I’m a research assistant for my husband, Paul, a social and political philosopher. Paul and I regularly discuss and vet each other’s work. So, while I don’t have a PhD, neither am I simply pulling things out of my derriere.

Paul and I delight in our four pets: Barsi, a Border Collie-Pyrenees cross, Howard, a German Shepherd-Bernese-Pyrenees cross puppy, and two cats, Mr. Tinky and Rorschach. Between us we have three wonderful sons and their three respective equally wonderful partners, and we delight in all. We live in Lethbridge, Alberta and, until covid, we travelled overseas throughout our summers.

• Thoughlets. xxvii.

  By pammentations on December 12, 2020 • ( 0 )

  Two SJW slogans are: Silence is Violence and Words are Violence.  If silence is violence, then one must speak. But words are violence. If words are violence, then one must be silent. But silence is violence.To avoid absurdity, the SJW must stipulate that Some… Read More ›

• Saturday Morning Pam-toons. “‘Tis not contrary to reason …” David Hume. (scroll down, see comments)

  By pammentations on December 12, 2020 • ( 2 )

  Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature. Book II, Part III, Section III, Of… Read More ›

• Saturday Morning Pam-toons. “Does he not there as much accuse mankind by his actions as I do by my words?” Thomas Hobbes.

  By pammentations on December 5, 2020 • ( 1 )

  It may seem strange to some man that has not well weighed these things that nature should thus dissociate and render men apt to invade and destroy one another; and he may therefore, not trusting to this inference, made from… Read More ›

• Saturday Morning Pam-toons. Retrain?

  By pammentations on November 21, 2020 • ( 0 )

  Resume EduCCATION — Grade 8 WORK EXPEANE (experience) – Labour 49 YRs [The writing is authentic.]

• Of Flocks and Wings

  By pammentations on November 20, 2020 • ( 0 )

  Lurking somewhere in the back of our adult brains is every mother’s admonition If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you? Don’t blindly follow your friends. Sometimes this warning is made explicit. When I went to university in my 40s,… Read More ›

• Thoughtlets .xxvi.

  By pammentations on November 16, 2020 • ( 1 )

  What fascinates me about Speakeasies was the mingling between and relative equality of rich, poor, women, men, black and white. These illicit clubs helped with the momentum and success of civil rights movements. The current Prohibition with its categories of prohibited… Read More ›

• A meditation on the character of a political speaker and, by extension, a voter (Oct. 31/20 with Nov. 15/20 addendum)

  By pammentations on November 15, 2020 • ( 1 )

  Loosely put, rhetoric is the art of persuasion. More specifically, on Aristotle’s definition, rhetoric is “the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion.” We all use rhetoric to convince others of some thing or other,… Read More ›

• Saturday Morning Pam-Toons. A Speakeasy in the Age of Prohibition. (see caption)

  By pammentations on November 14, 2020 • ( 4 )

  See also, https://pam-mentations.com/2020/11/16/thoughtlets-xxvi/

• What’s in a name? A face, a voice, laughter, habits brought readily to mind.

  By pammentations on November 9, 2020 • ( 1 )

  The names of the people we love are like beads on a Rosary, well-worn worry stones oft-fondled for comfort and reassurance.

• Saturday Morning Pam-toons. Covid 5896BC

  By pammentations on November 7, 2020 • ( 0 )