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March 10, 2025

Thoughtlets. LXIX. The Golden Mean Wobbles.

(Excerpt from my archives, here referring to the back and forthing in philosophical argumentation.) …As philosophers, our professional duties include calling each other out on the use of ad hominens, but in so doing we need be careful not to deploy them ourselves..1 [footnote1] This back and forthing process can get quite heated and lends Continue reading

Philosophy, Thoughtlets

civil, combative camaraderie, conversation, Philosophy, provocation, style
February 12, 2022

Saturday Morning Pam-toons. Cf. Mao, Be Your Authentic Self. (Scroll down)

You’ve nothing to fear. I worry a little that, in this politically charged environment particularly, when someone urges you to ‘be your authentic self’ she means ‘come out here where I can get you’. Addendum, April 11, 2021 as follows: Gilbert King, “The Silence that Preceded China’s Great Leap into Famine“, Smithsonianmag.com, Sept. 12, 2012. Continue reading

Pam-Toons

authentic, belief, conversation, danger, discourse, disingenuous, dissimulate, expression, free, honest, Maranos, moriscos, safe, self, speech, truthful, U-boat, witch hunt
April 7, 2021

Some Problems with Complaisance.

If something doesn’t bother me, e.g. the F-word, why should I be bothered that it bothers you? Let’s start with friendship. As Aristotle notes, “[Friends are] those with whom we are on such terms that, while we respect their opinions, we need not blush before them for doing what is conventionally wrong…” (Aristotle. Rhetoric. Trans. Continue reading

Philosophy, Social and Political Commentary

academic freedom, aristotle, boundaries, censorship, communication, complaisance, conversation, friends, friendship, Hobbes, impase, interpersonal, interpersonal stress, Law, Mao, negotiation, policy, professor, scholarship, stress, student, university

conversation

Thoughtlets. LXIX. The Golden Mean Wobbles.

Saturday Morning Pam-toons. Cf. Mao, Be Your Authentic Self. (Scroll down)

Some Problems with Complaisance.