Blog Stats
- 2,820,666 readers since June 2008
Recent Comments
- W.C. Billingsworth III on Blogging UFOs: What Do You Make of Professor Robert Jacobs’s Bizarre UFO Testimony?
- Ruby Walker on Emily Dickinson, Lesbian?: Her Letter to Susan Gilbert, in June of 1852, Might Tell Us Less Than You Think
- Answer the questions | Philosophy homework help – Know Essays on Feminism for Beginners
- Eric Ciaremelo on Trump’s New Cancel Culture: Cancelling Black Voters
- Bernie was right! - deepredpond on “We Rule You, We Fool You”: Classic 1911 Poster Depicting Capitalism Titled “Pyramid of Capitalist System”
- Answer the questions | Philosophy homework help - Nursing Essays Writings on Feminism for Beginners
- Andrew Clunn on Trump’s New Cancel Culture: Cancelling Black Voters
- Anonymous on Emily Dickinson, Lesbian?: Her Letter to Susan Gilbert, in June of 1852, Might Tell Us Less Than You Think
- Answer the questions | Philosophy homework help - Georgia Papers on Feminism for Beginners
- L. on Albert Camus: The Absurd, Rebellion, Freedom, Passion, and Solidarity
- Philosophy homework help - Graduate Papers on Feminism for Beginners
- Answer the questions | Philosophy homework help - thenursinggurus on Feminism for Beginners
- Chittwood2 on Trump’s New Cancel Culture: Cancelling Black Voters
- Laurie on Emily Dickinson, Lesbian?: Her Letter to Susan Gilbert, in June of 1852, Might Tell Us Less Than You Think
- Existential Absurdity in Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat” (1897) – What I'm reading on Existential Absurdity in Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat” (1897)
Top Posts
- "Courtly Love, Or, Woman As Thing": How To Do Lacanian Analysis Like Slavoj Zizek (Or, At Least Understand What He's Getting At When He Does)
- Emily Dickinson, Lesbian?: Her Letter to Susan Gilbert, in June of 1852, Might Tell Us Less Than You Think
- Walt Whitman: "To be indeed a God!"
- What, Exactly, Is Wrong With Bestiality?
- UFOs, Aliens, and Religious Art
- Adam Smith and Capitalism for Beginners
- Clit Rubbing Bonobos: A Clue to the Evolutionary Origin of Human Homosexuality?
- "The Vision of Christ That Thou Dost See": William Blake on the Many Faces of Jesus
- Camus in a Nutshell: God is Not Good, Nature is Not Good, and We are More Moral Than God or Nature
- The Bhagavad Gita and Socrates vs. Homer and The Iliad
-
Recent Posts
Recent Haiku Tweets
- @abrahampiper Yahweh as a frustrated deity, much to be pitied! Abraham Piper's insight here, if thought about as a… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 1 month ago
- RT @tbonier: More than 80M votes cast and we're not done yet. Thoughts: - It's too late for an "October surprise" to have a significant imp… 6 months ago
- RT @RachelBitecofer: 1. Want to thank @DanielNewman for using his HUGE platform for this work. I want to clarify what this is. In the voter… 8 months ago
- RT @RachelBitecofer: Tell me again about how old and feeble Joe Biden is??? twitter.com/ProjectLincoln… 9 months ago
- RT @RachelBitecofer: Remember when you had a chance to choose country over party and you chose party @SenatorCollins? Well, @ProjectLincol… 9 months ago
Tag Archives: contingency
Whatever Works: Pierce’s Abduction, Darwin’s Evolution, Entropy, Bayes’ Rule, and Rorty’s Pragmatism
I’ve recently been struck by the similarity between Charles Sanders Pierce’s notion of abduction (reasoning to the best hypothesis; “may the best hypothesis win”), Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution (survival of the fittest; “may the best organism win”), entropy (what … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged contingency, critical thinking, entropy, evolution, philosophy, probability, psychology
3 Comments
Terror Management Theory in a Nutshell
Freud and contingency. One of Sigmund Freud’s important insights is that each of us has a contingent history; that is, we each have been born into a particular place and time not of our choosing and live out our circumstances … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged apologetics, atheism, chess, contingency, life, philosophy, psychology, Terror Management Theory
1 Comment
Embrace Chance?
In a collection of art essays by Roger Kimball titled Art’s Prospect (Ivan R. Dee 2003) is an essay on a Matisse exhibit in which Kimball writes the following (151): [Matisse] arrived [in Morocco in 1912] in the rainy season, … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Alan Ginsberg, art, chance, contingency, creative writing, existentialism, Freud, literature, Matisse, Neal Cassady
Leave a comment
Ralph Nader in His Prime
The ur-consumer advocate in 1970: __________ Good stuff. But I still blame him for Al Gore’s loss to George Bush in Florida in 2000. The gods of contingency can be absurdly and maliciously cruel to one’s legacy.
The Lowdown
If you’re like me, you don’t want to die. And if you’re also like me, you’ve got things you tell yourself and things you do to divert your attention away from the fact that you will die. But even Ray Kurzweil will die. That’s … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged atheism, contingency, death, existentialism, God, kindness, life, love
6 Comments
From Lemons to Lemonade: Two Cool Examples of Contingency Turned to Art (One a Painting, One a Poem)
In a collection of art essays by Roger Kimball titled Art’s Prospect (Ivan R. Dee 2003) is an essay on a Matisse exhibit in which Kimball writes the following (151): [Matisse] arrived [in Morocco in 1912] in the rainy season, and his … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged chance, contingency, existentialism, life, Matisse, new historicism, poetry, Richard Blanco
Leave a comment
Chance v. Conspiracy Theory Watch: Ezra Klein’s Contingency Observations v. Matt Damon’s “The Adjustment Bureau”
At the Washington Post’s website, Ezra Klein shares why he can’t bring himself to sit through the conspiracy-themed Matt Damon film, The Adjustment Bureau: I can’t believe in guys in suits with the ability to plan things. And why can’t he believe … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged atheism, central planning, chance, conspiracy theory, contingency, determinism, End Times, existentialism, film, God, literature, matt damon
6 Comments
Atheist universes without end: Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow’s ironically titled new book, “The Grand Design”
In a recent Washington Post review of Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow’s new book, The Grand Design (Bantam 2010), physicist James Trefil summarizes how the authors answer this question: Where did our lawful universe come from?: Our current best description of the physics … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged agnosticism, apologetics, atheism, atheist, chance, contingency, existentialism, Genesis, God, Stephen Hawking, the big bang, the multiverse
21 Comments
Jerry Coyne v. Jerry Fodor: The Great Divorce
Jerry Fodor and Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini’s book, What Darwin Got Wrong (2010), received a fair amount of attention (and drubbing) when it first came out in February. On Tuesday of this week, evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne expressed dismay that Jerry Fodor, in a recent interview, continues … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged apologetics, atheism, biology, Charles Darwin, contingency, evolution, intelligent design, jerry coyne, jerry fodor, natural selection, philosophy, science
3 Comments
Is a Fortunate and Highly Improbable Energy Resonance (that Makes Carbon Atoms—and Us—Possible) a Coincidence or a “Put-Up Job”?
Physicist John Polkinghorne thinks it’s a put-up job, and explains:
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged anthropic principle, apologetics, astronomy, carbon, chance, contingency, God, john polkinghorne, physics, probability, religion, star stuff
1 Comment
Ontario Lacus: How Does It Feel to Live in an Alien World in Which Everything That Is Does Not Have to Be?
In a recent science article at the New York Times, the unpredictable blendings and contingencies of history jumped out at me in the way that Titan’s methane lake, “Ontario Lacus,” came to be named: In 2004 a camera known as the Imaging Science Subsystem on … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Adam, astronomy, contingency, Darwin, existentialism, fortuna, gay marriage, life, luck, Nietzsche, saturn, titan
2 Comments
Nietzsche’s checkmate: does atheism lead to totalitarianism?
A.C. Grayling, an atheist author that I tend to otherwise love, calls the idea that atheism gave birth to communism and fascism a theist “canard.” But, as an agnostic who has been doing a good deal of Nietzsche reading lately, I’m not … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged a.c. grayling, apologetics, atheism, atheist, Charles Darwin, Communism, contingency, fascism, Friedrich Nietzsche, Nietzsche, postmodernism, totalitarianism
15 Comments
In case you’re having a bad day
The below video offers a bit of perspective. Carl Sagan: Astronomy is a humbling and character building experience.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged alone, astronomy, atheism, carl sagan, contingency, earth, existentialism, life, love, mental health break, perspective, psychology
Leave a comment
What is amor fati?
What Friedrich Nietzsche took from Charles Darwin is the idea of radical contingency, and so Nietzsche’s amor fati (love of fate) is an embrace of all of life’s contingencies. Do you have the courage to embrace your existential situation (what Sartre called … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged atheism, contingency, Darwin, death, evolution, heaven, idealism, life, materialism, Nietzsche, philosophy, Platonism
1 Comment
Survival of the Physics: Quantum Darwinism?
Have you ever heard of quantum Darwinism? It’s not a form of New Age woo, but something that physicists are seriously exploring. This yesterday at PhysOrg.com: The basis of almost any theoretical quantum-to-classical transition lies in the concept of decoherence. … Continue reading
Why I blog
Here’s my list of reasons for blogging: Contingency. Blogging is a rather pure way of embracing contingency (chance). Like dropping a marble down a pachinko machine, I put a random thought out into the world and see what associations it provokes in me and anyone … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged aphorism, blogging, contingency, existentialism, free speech, irony, Kafka, life, Socrates, solidarity, why i blog, writing
Leave a comment
