Category Archives: aesthetics

A Mini-Course In Rhetoric For Writers. Concept 2.10: Emerson’s “Circles”

Posted on January 7, 2019 by

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 →

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A Mini-Course In Rhetoric For Writers. Concept 2.9: Imitation And Emulation With An Eye On Competition

Posted on October 17, 2018 by

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 →

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A Mini-Course in Critical Thinking For Writers. Concept 1.16: Thinking Critically About Beauty, Art, And Literature

Posted on October 15, 2018 by

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 →

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Pareidolia, Google Deep Dream, Wittgenstein’s Aspect Seeing, and Friedrich Nietzsche

Posted on September 29, 2018 by

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 | Leave a comment

Relativity (A Poem)

Posted on June 26, 2018 by

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 →

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Self Calming: 86 Ways To Activate Your Parasympathetic Nervous System

Posted on April 4, 2018 by

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 →

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The Poet’s Fictions (A Poem)

Posted on September 29, 2017 by

THE POET’S FICTIONS   No hurry, no preference; Nothing simple, Nothing personal; one fire, Great Silence.   Bring your rebellion. Bring your solidarity. Imagine. Bent nail. Struggle. Birth. _____

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Spring (a poem)

Posted on May 8, 2017 by

SPRING   God gave me a rose. And God is love. The rose made me.   Sneeze. I have Asthma. The rose Landed.   Me in hospital. That can’t be right. If God is love.   And gave me a … Continue reading →

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Trump’s America Is Not My America

Posted on March 15, 2017 by

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 | 3 Comments

The Tools of Manipulation vs. The Tools of Critical Thinking

Posted on March 13, 2017 by

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 →

Posted in aesthetics, atheism, atomism, Bernie Sanders, climate change, david hume, donald trump, edward feser, feminism, God, hillary clinton, philosophy, Politics, science, Uncategorized | 7 Comments

“A Neutral Color Or Yellow?” A Poem On The Problem Of Fence Sitting In The Age Of Trump

Posted on March 5, 2017 by

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 →

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What Time Is It? (Another Poem for Daniela Vargas)

Posted on March 2, 2017 by

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.  

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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)

Posted on March 2, 2017 by

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 | 2 Comments

Camille Paglia Trolls the Oscars

Posted on February 24, 2017 by

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 | 1 Comment

Atheist Bart Compolo, Meet Joseph Koerner

Posted on December 30, 2016 by

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 →

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Donald Trump And The Slave Market

Posted on October 12, 2016 by

I detect the whiff of the slave market in these stories. Trump casually and repeatedly compromised young women’s modesty, mixing among them while they were naked in their dressing rooms–and some of them were as young as fifteen. Because he … Continue reading →

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The Double Helix of Your Nightmares

Posted on September 25, 2016 by

An interesting floor mosaic at the University of Notre Dame memorializing the evolutionary biologist who coined the familiar saying, “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.” The image of the double helix of DNA recalls the … Continue reading →

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A Stairway to Nowhere in NYC

Posted on September 14, 2016 by

Hmm. Moloch? A face mask without a self? Ever bigger guys pressing down on the littlest guy? There’s something Kafkaesque about this “stairway to nowhere.” An Escher painting catching real humans? It recalls a trilobite or exoskeleton–or perhaps an ant … Continue reading →

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Evolution Lowdown: Earth is a Big Blue Petri Dish in Space

Posted on September 12, 2016 by

__________ In the video above, from Harvard Medical School, bacterial evolution is on display in real time. At the end of the video, there’s even an overlay of the the branching family trees that developed in the experiment. That’s the … Continue reading →

Posted in aesthetics, atheism, atomism, beauty, climate change, Genesis, God, Lucretius, origins, science, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

David Hume On Beauty–And How To Get Good At Detecting It

Posted on May 17, 2016 by

Is taste in art and literature akin to taste in ice cream? In 1757, the Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711-1776) published four essays under the title, Four Dissertations, one of which he called “Of the Standard of Taste.” In it, Hume attempts … Continue reading →

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