Some believe that politically powerful people are actually shape-shifting reptilian aliens bent on dominating humans, a.k.a. Lizard People. Before you mock these believers, check your own metaphysical commitments. You might find some cause for humility.
belief
Thoughtlets .ii.
Ever wonder why someone would reap the royalties of an end-is-nigh book if she really believes the end is nigh?
Saturday Morning Pam-Toons. Truth sets you free?
It’s all your fault.
What beliefs are ‘for’. Aaron C.T. Smith
Aaron CT Smith, a cognitive scientist from Melbourne, Australia, gives a brilliant account of what beliefs do for us. Flock Theory, “In my estimation…beliefs follow the same kinds of rules governing flocks of birds…First, successful beliefs fit the rule of… Read More ›
Building a model of the world is a community project. Series. 5.4.
Recall my project here. In this series, I lay out some “bones” for thinking about the way — the why and the how — the people we depend on for our survival, delectation, and companionship (our peeps) help us navigate… Read More ›
Mattering to each other. Series 5.2.
In this series, I lay out some “bones” for thinking about the way — the why and the how — the people we depend on for our survival, delectation, and companionship (our peeps) help us navigate the world. And we… Read More ›
The day the Russians nuked my sawmill camp. A survivor’s memoir.
It’s an October morning, 1975, in Upper Fraser, a remote sawmill camp in north central B.C. I’m 9 years old, sitting at my desk in the portable classroom where I’m to spend the remainder of my elementary school years. A… Read More ›
Thomas Hobbes on controversy. A quote worth contemplating. Series 3.3.
“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 ›
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty. A quote worth contemplating. Series 3.2.
“[Cf Cicero] He who knows only his own side knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may be able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite… Read More ›
Come on, how much do you really want to know? 2.2
If you really want to get detailed, and disturbed, about how much faith you put in the things that matter for your life, think of having a surgery. Just think about the doctor’s trust in the science she refers to,… Read More ›
