What’s it like to be a bat? That question was a matter of debate in certain philosophical circles a decade or two ago. I read a some contributions to that debate and remember at first feeling sympathy for the arguments of those who were considered champions of the mind as something that is independent of … [Read more…]
[Part 4: Continuation of my comments upon reading Barth’s “The Epistle to the Romans”, Oxford University paperback, 1968] On page 437, Barth claims: “As an act of thinking [thinking of eternity] it dissolves itself; it participates in the pure thought of God, and is therefore an accepted sacrifice, living, holy, acceptable to God.” Barth — … [Read more…]
[Part 3: Continuation of my comments upon reading Barth’s “The Epistle to the Romans”, Oxford University paperback, 1968] As a passing matter, I noted a hint of modal logic in a passage beginning around the middle of page 324 with: “Thus, before every moment in time, God foreordains… Here is it that we encounter the … [Read more…]
Even an armchair historian can tell you that a good general prepares for his retreat as soon as he sees the need for it. He tries to arrange an orderly retreat to minimize casualties and loss of equipment and other materiel. He knows not to try to hold ground which is indefensible, being well aware … [Read more…]
I’ve argued that the human mind is shaped by its immediate environments, including social relationships starting with that between infant and mother. From there, we expand out into larger sections of those immediate environments and may begin to interact with other environments. In this expansion into other environments, we’re like other opportunistic animals — bears … [Read more…]
I’ve been thinking about Principalities, Powers, and Invisible Hands for a good decade or so, not every day but often. My academic background is in mathematics and I’ve read fairly broadly in ‘chaos theory’ and related specialities. I’ve even read some of the works of John Casti and Stuart Kaufmann, two experts in self-organizing systems. … [Read more…]
Einstein gave a great gift to rational thinkers, Christian and non-Christian. He gave us a universe, that is, a coherent definition of a universe. And the definition is proving to be quite a bit different from the traditional metaphysical definitions. In fact, the simplest way to think of Einsteinian Universes as a class is to … [Read more…]
So, what is man? He’s intentional in his moral nature. He’s born to acquire certain moral behaviors towards mother and father and brethren but mostly towards his mother because of the special bond. He’ll recognize her very smell and her body is changing in certain ways to adapt itself to the care of a baby … [Read more…]
I don’t know where consciousness begins in the animal kingdom though most animals we pay attention to are certainly conscious in the intuitive sense of being aware of their immediate environment and not just responding to simple chemical cues. So far as I know, only human beings are self-aware in a deep sense so that … [Read more…]
“BrainWork”is a free newsletter distributed by The Dana Foundation run by some of the most prominent neuroscientists, geneticists, and other biologists in the United States and — I believe — Canada. In the July-August, 2006 issue, there’s an interesting article, Out-of-body but in the Brain”. The article tells us: At every moment, the brain effortlessly … [Read more…]