pam-mentations.com

August 13, 2020

Struggle.

For many, getting through the day is like being a mole on asphalt. Continue reading

adversity, advice, depression, difficult, emotion, moral, myopia, struggle, suffering, theodicy

August 13, 2020

Hume: poetry, music, philosophy quote (with photo)

‘Tis not solely in poetry and music, we must follow our taste and sentiment, but likewise in philosophy. David Hume. Ed. Ernest C. Mossner. A Treatise of Human Nature. Penguin Classics: New York. 1985 (First published 1739 and 1740). p 153 Continue reading

Arts and Leisure, Catch-All

Agerola, Amalfi, coast, David Hume, Hume, Italy, music, Paipo, panorama, passions, Philosophy, photo, poetry, sea, sentiments, sigh, Terranian, view, vision

August 8, 2020

Aristotle and Pam on The Political Rhetor. Series. 6.1. Intro.

I’ve already published 6.2.a. The Poor, 6.2. b. Children, and 6.2.c.i. Future Generations. So this intro is out of chronological order. The most important concept for political rhetoric is the “perlocutionary speech act” as described below. “The political orator* aims at establishing the expediency** or the harmfulness of a proposed course of action; if he Continue reading

Political Rhetoric

analogy, aristotle, cognitive, orator, perlocution, perusasion, Philosophy, political, politician, politics, rhetoric, social

July 8, 2020

Count to 10

The following is a little bit of recycled advice from one of my early posts. Why the advice? To encourage you to 1) Protect your health and well-being (physical/mental/emotional/social); 2) Protect your reputation; 3) Protect your intellectual integrity. ADOPT THE COUNT-TO-10 RULE. If something someone says on the internet pushes your buttons, do not immediately reply. Continue reading

Thoughtlets

advice, emotion, health, integrity, outrage, Philosophy, reputation, social media

July 8, 2020

People are saying

*Update: substitute for “pandemic” any highly charged story currently looping on news media. “People are saying….” People are saying all kinds of things as this pandemic unfolds. Of course they are, that’s what people do !! Inspiring things, horrible things, hypocritical things, smart things, stupid things, true things, false things, all kinds of things. Some Continue reading

Catch-All

anxiety, health, immunity, information, media, mental health, pandemic, Philosophy, relief, stress

June 27, 2020

Fist Pumping.

I’ve here in mind the fist-pumping variety of politically vocal people, those certain that one side is leading us to another dark ages and the other to a totalitarian state. It appears that for some “left and right” thinking is characterized by black and white thinking. Nuance is lost. And with this loss, so too Continue reading

Political Rhetoric

anger, cartoon, cartoons, fear, narrative, perception, perspective, Philosophy, polarization, political, politics, social, social epistemology, trust, truth, vitriol

March 16, 2020

Music, stories, games as responses to ‘uncertain times’

About our responses during uncertain times …This is not a “beware the apocalypse” doom and gloom post. Neither is it a “look on the bright side” post. Rather, last summer I read a book called Apocalyses by Eugene Weber, an Canadian historian. And a passage therein set me to thinking about the various kinds of responses to Continue reading

Catch-All

aloysius, disaster, fritz, response, threat, uncertain times, uncertainty

March 5, 2020

The Real Experts.

Some people attempt to inject a little sense into the world by writing a letter to the editor, others by commenting on the comments commenting on the comments on a comment thread, and others still by preaching from a soapbox at a public discussion forum or from a soapbox on a street corner (location, location, Continue reading

Catch-All

academia, academics, assistant, expert, experts, humor, humour, opinion, partner, Philosophy, spouse, trailing wife

February 25, 2020

Tragedy of the Commons. Hardin

If you’ve never read Garrett Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons” (1968), let me recommend it as worth having under your belt. (6 pages) https://www.hendrix.edu/uploadedFiles/Admission/GarrettHardinArticle.pdf Roughly, Hardin describes how rational individuals acting in their own self interests will deplete a shared resource at the expense of a collective’s interests. Hence a hurdle to collective action problems, Continue reading

Thoughtlets

anal, classic, collective action, economics, Hardin, primary resources, research, Tragedy of the Commons

January 30, 2020

‘Mom-advice’. You take a little cringe with the good.

Some parental advice is worth keeping, some not. Here’s a not. Mom used to tell me, You can’t get married until you can put your hands in hot water. By this warning she figured she could get me to wash the dishes without having to nag. And she was right. Time and again, I took Continue reading

Catch-All

advice, aging, family, generations, intergenerational, mom, parenting, sharing, wisdom