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Category Archives: aesthetics
A Meditation Explainer for Poets and Environmentalists
As an English professor who is also active in the environmental movement, organizing an annual environmental conference at my college, I thought it would be productive to write out to myself what I think meditation is in relation to the … Continue reading
Posted in aesthetics, atheism, atomism, beauty, Darwin, david hume, Emerson, feminism, God, Lucretius, meditation, philosophy, poetry, Uncategorized, writing
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Late Night Tuesday, November 3rd, 2020 (a poem-prophecy in which I predict the election result for those with ears to hear)
LATE NIGHT TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3RD, 2020 I. Yeats has a question, and I just love Barbara Stanwyck, don’t you? So the first thing I’m getting is this: White is the color of loose saints’ robes and of atheism, and blue-white … Continue reading
Posted in aesthetics, atheism, beauty, climate change, coronavirus, donald trump, meditation, poetry, Politics, Uncategorized
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No Dogs in Heaven (A Coronavirus Poem)
NO DOGS IN HEAVEN It’s their morning walk; one shall be taken. He’s masked, she’s not. They match in sweaters. He is black, but time has made him blue and atheist. She is bleach white, a poodle. Reaching the porch … Continue reading
Posted in aesthetics, atheism, atomism, beauty, coronavirus, donald trump, God, Lucretius, philosophy, poetry, reason, rhetoric, Uncategorized, writing
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The Religion Tree (a poem)
THE RELIGION TREE I. The leaf doesn’t fall far from the tree, and we are all leaves on the same tree, and will take our leave from here. II. The yellow leaf signals fall, the green leaf, pride before the fall. … Continue reading
Posted in aesthetics, atheism, beauty, critical thinking, Genesis, God, meditation, philosophy, poetry, Uncategorized, writing
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Spring, without God (a poem)
SPRING, WITHOUT GOD God gave me a rose, And God is love. The rose made me Sneeze, and I have Asthma. The rose Landed Me in hospital, Which can’t be right If God is love And … Continue reading
Posted in aesthetics, atheism, beauty, critical thinking, Darwin, God, Lucretius, meditation, philosophy, poetry, reason, Uncategorized
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A Mini-Course In Rhetoric For Writers. Concept 2.10: Emerson’s “Circles”
Eye and horizon. Below are a few excerpts from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s (1803-1882) essay, “Circles” (1841). In the essay, he likens the writer’s vision and imagination to something like an onion, layer overlaying layer. Each moment the eye is overlaid with a new horizon or … Continue reading
Posted in aesthetics, atheism, beauty, critical thinking, Darwin, education, Emerson, philosophy, reason, rhetoric, Uncategorized, writing
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A Mini-Course In Rhetoric For Writers. Concept 2.9: Imitation And Emulation With An Eye On Competition
Concept 2.9. Imitation and emulation with an eye on competition. The ancient Greek teacher Longinus is among the first thinkers to address what would become a recurrent theme in the history of writing, and most especially, literary criticism: the sublime … Continue reading
Posted in aesthetics, atheism, atomism, critical thinking, donald trump, education, edward feser, God, Hegel, philosophy, reason, rhetoric, science, writing
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A Mini-Course in Critical Thinking For Writers. Concept 1.16: Thinking Critically About Beauty, Art, And Literature
I’ve decided to attempt the first draft of a college-level textbook, writing it directly into my blog, bit by bit. Feedback and recommendations in the thread comments are welcome, either encouraging or critical. The first chapter is a mini-course in … Continue reading
Posted in aesthetics, atheism, atomism, beauty, critical thinking, david hume, education, edward feser, meditation, philosophy, poetry, reason, rhetoric, writing
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Pareidolia, Google Deep Dream, Wittgenstein’s Aspect Seeing, and Friedrich Nietzsche
The below YouTube video on Google Deep Dream strikes me as an important reflection, not just on artificial intelligence and art, but on the human condition in the sense that pareidolia (projecting images, moods, ideas onto things) is far more … Continue reading
Posted in aesthetics, atheism, atomism, beauty, david hume, edward feser, God, Lucretius, meditation, philosophy, poetry, Uncategorized
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Relativity (A Poem)
RELATIVITY This is whatever can be measured between us. For instance, two birds share one sign, tail feathers touching, heads back in song, a heart of gray sky framed between them. But look again, for each line clocks a difference. One … Continue reading
Posted in aesthetics, atheism, atomism, beauty, climate change, meditation, poetry
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Self Calming: 86 Ways To Activate Your Parasympathetic Nervous System
Below is a concise self calming list I recently brainstormed for myself–and I thought it might be helpful for others as well. I keep a copy on a single piece of paper in my pocket and look at it periodically … Continue reading
Posted in aesthetics, atheism, atomism, beauty, Bernie Sanders, david hume, edward feser, God, Lucretius, meditation, philosophy, poetry, science, Uncategorized
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The Poet’s Fictions (A Poem)
THE POET’S FICTIONS No hurry, no preference; Nothing simple, Nothing personal. One fire, Great silence. Bring your rebellion. Bring your solidarity. Imagine the bent nail, The struggle, the birth. _____
Posted in aesthetics, atheism, atomism, beauty, edward feser, God, Lucretius, meditation, poetry, Uncategorized
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Spring without God (a poem)
SPRING WITHOUT GOD God gave me a rose, And God is love. The rose made me Sneeze, and I have Asthma. The rose Landed Me in hospital, which can’t be right If God is love And … Continue reading
Posted in aesthetics, atheism, beauty, edward feser, God, Lucretius, philosophy, poetry, Uncategorized
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Trump’s America Is Not My America
I don’t like the phrase “not my president.” I understand the sentiment, but I think it would be a more accurate reflection of that sentiment to say, “not my America.” Trump’s America is not my America in exactly the same … Continue reading
Posted in aesthetics, atheism, Bernie Sanders, climate change, donald trump, feminism, God, hillary clinton, Politics, science, Uncategorized
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The Tools of Manipulation vs. The Tools of Critical Thinking
In a recent article at The New York Times (“Why We Believe Obvious Untruths”), two cognitive scientists, Philip Fernbach and Steven Sloman, claim that dispersed knowledge is a ready and overriding explanation for why people profess belief in foolish things … Continue reading
“A Neutral Color Or Yellow?” A Poem On The Problem Of Fence Sitting In The Age Of Trump
A NEUTRAL COLOR OR YELLOW? If the emperor Says he has clothes, And has no clothes, Is silence suspended Judgment or cowardice? _____ Per Wikipedia: “On 10 May 1933, in an act of ominous significance, the students burned upwards … Continue reading
What Time Is It? (Another Poem for Daniela Vargas)
WHAT TIME IS IT? There are times When silence Does not mean Neutrality, Nor fairness, Nor indecision, Nor open-mindedness, But consent And approval; Indifference And cowardice. Our time is one Of those times.
Posted in aesthetics, atheism, beauty, donald trump, feminism, hillary clinton, meditation, philosophy, poetry, Politics, Ted Cruz, Uncategorized
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Question (a poem for DREAMer Daniela Vargas, in the United States since age seven, arrested in retaliation for exercising her free speech, 2017)
QUESTION What does it mean If a tree falls In a forest On a person And no One makes a sound?
Posted in aesthetics, beauty, donald trump, feminism, hillary clinton, meditation, philosophy, poetry, Politics, Ted Cruz, Uncategorized
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Camille Paglia Trolls the Oscars
Camille Paglia has, it seems to me, a persistent issue with confirmation bias. In the linked article below, she once again arrives with a dubious thesis that she then (predictably) locates a few snippets of anecdotal evidence for, rarely (never?) … Continue reading
Posted in aesthetics, beauty, donald trump, feminism, hillary clinton, Politics, Uncategorized
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Atheist Bart Compolo, Meet Joseph Koerner
Pretty darn interesting. Bart Compolo, a former evangelical minister who evolved intellectually toward atheism, has discovered the world needs some of the same basic things that he did as a pastor, so he’s doing them in a low-key way at … Continue reading
Posted in aesthetics, atheism, beauty, david hume, God, philosophy, Politics, science, Uncategorized
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Prometheus Unbound 