emotion

January 8, 2025

Thoughtlets LVII. Thomas Hobbes & Antonio Damasio

Two barebones comparisons of quotes from Chapter II of Antonio Damasio’s Looking For Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow and the Feeling Brain and Part I: Chapter 13 of Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan. Note: On Damasio’s view emotion and feeling are separate entities, although emotion both underpins and is intricately related to feeling. Emotions are “collections of reflex responses, Continue reading

Philosophy, Social and Political Commentary, Thoughtlets

cognitive science, conservation, damasio, delectation, emotion, Hobbes, Law, morality, neuroscience, passions, Philosophy, rhetoric, war, well-being
August 23, 2024

The Right(eous)ness of the Wronged: A Powerful Tool of Persuasion.

Righteous anger motivates personal crusades just as it does a march of thousands, even hundreds of thousands. *Herein, I use rhetor, orator speaker and writer interchangeably. Likewise for the words hearer, audience, judger, and reader. An overview of what Aristotle means by rhetoric and some of its features is helpful here. Aristotle defines rhetoric as, Continue reading

Philosophy, Political Rhetoric, Social and Political Commentary

anger, aristotle, campaign, emotion, ethos, God, good, harris, Hobbes, injustice, justice, karma, oratory, pathos, persuasion, Philosophy, political, politics, revenge, rhetoric, right, righteous, speaker, Trump
October 14, 2021

What, if anything, is wrong with MSNBC, CNN, and FOX? (Part 1 of 2)

My other half habitually surfs through a number of national and international news channels in the evenings. Our house is small, so I’m captive to whatever noise emanates from these rotating broadcasts. Sometimes this noise really gets under my skin. Such as? Such as the current tabloid coverage of the Gabby Petito case by the Continue reading

Philosophy, Political Rhetoric, Social and Political Commentary

analyses, analysis, beliefs, CNN, critic, criticism, determinants of health, divisions, doxa, doxastic, emotion, entertainment, epistemology, Fox, health, hyper, hyper-partisan, information, informed, internet, media, MSNBC, natural selection, news, newspapers, opinion, partisan, Philosophy, political, postman, rhetoric, smartphones, social, stability, tabloid, television
July 3, 2021

Thoughtlets. XLV. Theodicy revisited.

News media characteristically brings us one story after another about the kinds of things humans to do each other which are broadly characterized as ‘evil.’ And these stories tend to generate accusations of ‘evil-doers’ which are then dispatched with the speed and clamour of emergency vehicles headed to a five alarm fire. I’m not here Continue reading

Thoughtlets

discourse, emotion, evil, Mackie, media, Philosophy, politics, problem of evil, rhetoric, theodicy
November 5, 2020

Understanding Political Rhetoric and How It Works With Our Mental states to Persuade or Dissuade

Rhetoric is, broadly put, the art of persuasion. Whether we’re aware of it or not, we’re all persuaded by rhetorical tactics and use them ourselves to persuade others. Some people find this notion unconscionable, as if there is some cognitive and/or character defect involved in persuading or being persuaded. There isn’t. Others think they’re immune Continue reading

Political Rhetoric, Social and Political Commentary

anxiety, assumptions, cognition, emotion, examine, fallacies, fear, hope, humility, rhetoric, speeches, Thinking, unexamined
October 31, 2020

Thoughtlets .xxv.

If you like something a political speaker has said or the way she’s said it, ask yourself who her target audience is and whether you are a member. If so, remember the politician is soliciting your vote. It would not go amiss to slow down and inspect her wares for incorrigible defects, a most difficult Continue reading

Thoughtlets

bias, critcize, critic, deliberate, discern, emotion, inspection, judge, oratory, partisan, perspective, politician, politics, prejudice, rhetoric, scrutiny, slow, sophism, sophist, speech, think
August 13, 2020

Struggle.

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

Thoughtlets

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