opinion

March 13, 2025

Thoughtlets. LXXII. Duh.

Cherry-picked from the Wall of Banalities just for you: According to which criteria, and whose, do the good and right believers set themselves apart from the ignorant masses? Most, if not all, of us can claim some particular sliver of expertise, gleaned from years of experience, concerning some shred of knowledge or skill in some Continue reading

Political Rhetoric, Thoughtlets

banal, expertise, good, intelligence, opinion, opinions, rhetoric, right, righteousness, wrong
February 10, 2025

Thoughtlets. LXI.

This is why I think Hobbes is important: “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, not but that reason itself is always Continue reading

Philosophy, Political Rhetoric

certainty, controversy, doxa, doxastic, epistemology, facts, Hobbes, Leviathan, opinion, Philosophy, reason, rhetoric, right, righteous, science, uncertainty, warrant
January 16, 2025

Doing our doxastic labour together (vetting candidates for beliefs with our peeps), 4 of 4: What we stand to lose.

Recall my project here, Doing our doxastic labour together (vetting candidates for beliefs with our peeps), 1 of 4 In the final instalment of this series, I lay a few bones (see 3 of 4) on the table for your consideration. I hope you find them as interesting as I do. “If the human race Continue reading

Philosophy, Political Rhetoric, Social and Political Commentary

belief, beliefs, CNN, community, cooperation, doxa, doxastic, epistemology, Fox, groups, knowledge, lonely, medias, mental health, MSNBC, news, opinion, Philosophy, rhetoric, social, social media, technology, tribe
January 16, 2025

Doing our doxastic labour together (vetting candidates for beliefs with our peeps) 1 of 4

This post is comprised of some slightly retooled old work (published in 2019, then unpublished). It might just win the banality award (although it’s made some people angry). But some might find it interesting. Some of my references are a bit out of date now, but are still useful. Note: Doxa is belief or opinion. Continue reading

Philosophy, Political Rhetoric, Social and Political Commentary

belief, companionship, delectation, doxa, doxastic, epistemology, friends, mattering, mutual, opinion, peeps, Philosophy, politics, psychology, religion, shame, social, social epistemology, survival, trust
June 29, 2024

Dissoi Logoi (cf Aristotle), the Devil’s Advocate (Mill), and comments.

Way, way back in the day — a couple millennia ago — students receiving a classical education would have learned the necessity of Dissoi Logoi to constructing their arguments. That is, they’d throw themselves full throttle into an opposing or contradictory position to their own. And while Aristotle invented neither the method nor the term, Continue reading

Philosophy, Political Rhetoric, Social and Political Commentary

argument, aristotle, belief, cancel culture, controversy, covid, deplatform, devil's advocate, dissoi logoi, Mill, opinion, pandemic, Philosophy, rhetoric
June 15, 2024

Thoughtlets. LIII. Gossepistemology.

I’m suggesting a novel portmanteau, at least in as far as a cursory Google search tells me: Gossepistemology. Gossip + Epistemology. (*Google provides links to myriad articles on gossip & epistemology.) In Philosophy, epistemology is the branch concerned with the study of knowledge. A classical concern of epistemology is the distinction between opinion and knowledge Continue reading

Thoughtlets

belief, distinction, doxa, evidence, gossepistemology, gossip, knowledge, opinion, Philosophy, reliable, rhetoric, social, testimony
March 20, 2022

Saturday Morning Pam-toons. In Matters of Love and War — And All Matters In Between — There is No Dearth of Armchair Psychiatrists

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Pam-Toons

ad hominen, armchair, cartoon, CNN, code, conspiracy, diagnoses, diagnosis, diagnostic, discourse, doctor, drawing, ethics, Fox, Goldwater Rule, gossip, graphic, judge, mainstream, media, mental health, MSNBC, opinion, pencil, PhD, political, politics, psychiatrist, psychiatry, psychologist, psychology, rhetoric, satire, sketch, social
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
August 29, 2020

Saturday Morning Pam-Toons. Truth sets you free?

TRUTH. IT’S TRUE. TELL THE TRUTH. I’M TELLING THE TRUTH. YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH. YOU CAN HAVE THE TRUTH WHEN YOU PRY IT OUT OF MY COLD, DEAD HANDS. TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE. THE TRUTH AS I SEE IT. TRUE FOR YOU, BUT NOT FOR ME. TO THINE OWN SELF BE TRUE. BE Continue reading

Pam-Toons

belief, cartoon, doxa, epistemic, epistemology, ethics, graphic, jtb, justified, knowledge, media, narrative, opinion, Philosophy, rhetoric, true, truth
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