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Walker Percy Wednesday – 30

So thoroughly in fact did he identify with his group companions of the moment, so adept did he become at role-taking, as the social scientists call it, that he all but disappeared into the group. As everyone knows, New York is noted for the number and variety of the groups with which one might associate, so…

Grammar Of Assent/Loss and Gain

Newman’s classic An Essay In Aid Of A Grammar Of Assent is unlikely to have been read by mainstream epistemologists — much to their shame. GoA is freely available on Project Gutenberg as is his philosophical novel Loss and Gain: The Sory of a Convert.  EmpiricismEpistemologyepistemology of religious beliefgrammar of assentJohn Henry Newmanloss and gainphilosophical literatureReligion

The Killer

Let me tell ya something about Jerry Lee Lewis, ladies and gentlemen: I am a rock and rollin’, country-and-western, rhythm and blues-singin’ motherfucker. Given the bombast, his private life and his showmanship, it’s no surprise that Jerry Lee has had such appeal to the likes of Jimmy Page, Keef and a whole roster of A…

Dreams and Dreaming

Here is a just published lengthy entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. beliefCognitive neuroscienceCognitive scienceconsciousnessdelusionsDescartesDreamingdreamshallucinationillusionsPhilosophy of mindskepticismthe self

Literary Louisiana

A travel article (who in N.O. talks of “the Big Easy”?) . . . and realized, once again, that there’s no better place to find Walker Percy than inside the pages of his many dazzling novels, which I’d fallen in love with years ago. a confederacy of duncesJohn Kennedy TooleLiteratureLouisiananew orleansphilosophical literatureTennessee Williamsthe moviegoerTruman CapoteWalker Percywilliam…

Philosophy of markets

The very excellent Lisa Herzog interviewed here. H/T to Eric Schliesser. The cliché is that Smith is a “negative liberty” guy and Hegel a “positive liberty” guy. In fact, both have very nuanced accounts of how different dimensions of freedom are realized in a modern society; the freedom to do what you want with your property…

The Dead’s Terrapin Station

Speaking of Jerry . . . Yes, I know that traditional Dead Heads are divided by this song. But so far as I can tell it really is in keeping with the Dead’s eclectic open-mindedness about not only music but artistic endeavor in general. I mean Jerry’s guitar at about 12:14 is a fantastic blend of jazz, rock,…