survival

March 23, 2025

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

Social and Political Commentary

companionship, delectation, friends, friendship, peeps, Philosophy, rhetoric, social, social epistemology, survival, tribe
January 16, 2025

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

Philosophy, Political Rhetoric, Social and Political Commentary

belief, beliefs, companionship, doxa, doxastic, epistemology, evolution, friends, groups, mental health, peeps, Philosophy, psychology, relationships, social, social epistemology, support, survival, 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This post is comprised of some slightly retooled old work (published in 2019, then unpublished).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 Some of my references are a bit out of date now, but are still useful.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
February 24, 2022

Saturday Morning Pam-toons. And from this, an entire political theory.

Thomas Hobbes, A.P. Martinich and Brian Battiste, Eds, Leviathan, Broadview, 2011.Part I, Chapter XIII, 3. (p 122) Continue reading

Pam-Toons

cartoon, contract, contractarian, delectation, desire, game theory, good, graphic, Hobbes, jus ad bellum, jus in bello, justice, Leviathan, pencil, Philosophy, photo, political, politics, possession, property, resources, right, Russia, survival, Ukraine, war
February 24, 2022

Bread and Circuses

(Originally posted Oct. 24, 2020) Somewhere around the second century CE, the Roman satirist Juvenal coined the phrase ‘bread and circuses’ which has come to mean placating one’s populace with cheap bribes to distract them from their political grievances. Here’s the logic. Thomas Hobbes observed that “If any two men [sic] desire the same thing, Continue reading

Social and Political Commentary

bread and circuses, children, conservation, delectation, entertainment, Hobbes, iGen, iGeneration, intelligence, Juvenal, political, revolution, social, social media, survival, technology
August 20, 2021

Small house in a big world. The power of perspective.

I don’t know how old I was when I first heard I live in a very small house, but my windows look out on a very big world. But as one of my dad’s favourite quotes, I’ve known it as long as I can remember. Up until recently, I’ve attributed the quote to Thoreau. But Continue reading

Catch-All

adapt, adversity, advice, change, Confucius, contemplation, curiousity, inspiration, learning, life, perspective, social, survival, thought, transitions, travel
April 30, 2021

Thought experiment: the last humans. (Thoughtlets. XL.)

Thought experiment. Imagine some cosmic event renders all humans sterile. After a number of decades pass, humankind literally enters a Golden Age, with an exclusively senior population. Although, ‘senior’ might lose its current meaning when the youngest among us is 64. I wonder if those in good health will resent the burden of care imposed Continue reading

Philosophy, Thoughtlets

ageing, childhood, death, end of world, end times, environment, existential, human, meaning, population, rhetoric, senior, survival, sustainable, thought experiment
March 20, 2021

Saturday Morning Pam-toons. As Not To Be Weary of It. Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes, A.P. Martinich and Brian Battiste, Eds, Leviathan, Broadview, 2011. Part I, Chapter XIV, pp 128-129 Continue reading

Pam-Toons

choice, death, delectation, dignity, drawing, ethics, euthanasia, foto, Free Will, graphic, health care, Hobbes, Law, legal, Leviathan, life, medical, palliative, palliaton, pencil, photo, quality, right, security, sketch, suffering, survival, Thomas Hobbes, tired, voluntary
September 28, 2020

Identity-angst is not just for teens.

Amid the angst and drama of the teen years is discovering one’s identity and where one fits in. But adults struggle with these issues, too. Some learn to just ‘fit in’. Some happily. Others feeling suffocated, wearing a mask, harbouring regrets. The mid-life crisis is a common phenomenon, as is a marital partner leaving to Continue reading

Catch-All

aging, identity, life, mid-life crisis, regrets, social, social pressure, survival
September 18, 2020

Thoughtlets. ix.

What is meant by the admonition ‘Think before you speak!’ ? The vast majority of the time we don’t think before we speak. Else we’d never speak. So what is meant is either 1) stop and think about the right social thing to say or, 2) the factually correct thing. And oftentimes these two things Continue reading

Thoughtlets

censorship, compleasance, constraint, conventions, correct, correction, disapproabation, fact, factual, forethought, game theory, Hobbes, moral, Philosophy, self censorship, social, survival, tension