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Thoughtlets. LXXV. The people you rely on for your survival, delectation, AND companionship.
I define a tribe as those people you rely on for your survival, delectation, AND companionship. They’re your peeps. You can name them! [Excerpt from a footnote in my archives, 2019] I refer to those people who know you peed the bed until you were 12, not because you told them but because they slept Continue reading
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Thoughts. LXVI. Thinking in groups as opposed to group think.
We constantly seek out others to help us think. We go for counselling; we lose sleep researching; we lose sleep about big decisions, such as finances and health; we lose sleep worrying about whether we’ve done the right thing; we ask for advice; we gossip; we vent; we read self-help books, consumer reports, studies, news; Continue reading
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What beliefs do for us. Aaron C.T. Smith
In his book, Cognitive Mechanisms of Belief Change, Aaron CT Smith, a cognitive scientist from Melbourne, Australia, provides a brilliant analogy to explain 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 separation. Like birds in the flock, Continue reading
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Dinner for one.
Photo and painting by Pam. 2019. (published 2025) Continue reading
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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
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Doing our doxastic labour together (vetting candidates for beliefs with our peeps), 3 of 4: Building a model of the world is a community project.
Recall my project here, Doing our doxastic labour together (vetting candidates for beliefs with our peeps), 1 of 4 Here 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. Continue reading
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Doing our doxastic labour together (vetting candidates for beliefs with our peeps) 2 of 4: Survival & Companionship
To find out what I’m up to here, see : Doing our doxastic labour together (vetting candidates for beliefs with our peeps) 1 of 4 *I’ve checked the links below to ensure they are active as of Jan 16, 2025 Often times we pick up facts that appear useful or interesting and bring them back Continue reading
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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
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A look back at Covid 2020 – 2022 through Saturday Morning Pam-Toons.
What the heck was that?! A look back at Covid 2020 – 2022 through my Saturday Morning Pam-toons. Covid 5896 BC First published 7 Nov 2020. Republished 17 Jan 2022. Full post here: https://pam-mentations.com/2022/01/17/saturday-morning-pam-toons-covid-5896bc/ Plague Spreader 13 Feb 2021. Published January 17, 2022. Full post here: https://pam-mentations.com/2022/01/17/saturday-morning-pam-toons-plague-spreader/ Love-sick and isolated by covid, Mrs. Fiklesbrank finally Continue reading
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Forest of Knowledge. Beatnik Philosophy.
Complementing an academic’s freedom to dissent is the maximal removal of impediments to her pursuit of hypotheses and matters of fact about the stuff that furnishes the universe and of the universe itself. This stuff undergirds the core investigations of philosophy: what exists (ontology); what, and how, can we know (epistemology); and how shall we Continue reading
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