Category Archives: MInd

Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 5

Posted on 24 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

After being distracted by Texas affairs, politics, Riven, and reading Brian Greene and others, let’s get back to this book and try to finish summarizing it and capturing key points. This and one more post. Earlier posts about this book: … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, MInd, Morality, Science, Steven Pinker | Comments Off on Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 5

There Is No Other Place

Posted on 14 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Cue the Conspiracy Theorists and Projectionists. Items today about yesterday’s assassination attempt against Donald Trump, and which side is the one that actually promotes violence. * Well, I didn’t suspect that so many on the right would blame the *left* … Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, Culture, MInd, Politics | Comments Off on There Is No Other Place

Save the Children?

Posted on 11 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Never mind homeschooling; now there’s a cult of “unschooling”; Nascent thoughts about conservative morality, children, MAGA, and the return to a simpler past — which would be, childhood; How Oklahoma is letting right-wing figures (including David Barton) run its social … Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, Education, MInd, Religion, Technology | Comments Off on Save the Children?

Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 4

Posted on 26 June 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Another five chapters, mostly addressing the fears people have with the idea of an innate human nature, as opposed to the idealized blank slate: concerning inequality, imperfectibility, determinism, and nihilism. Earlier posts about this book: post 1, post 2, post … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, MInd, Science, Steven Pinker | Comments Off on Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 4

Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 3

Posted on 24 June 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Summaries and comments about three more chapters of Steven Pinker’s THE BLANK SLATE; And YouTube tracks from one of my favorite film scores: Richard Robbins’ for The Remains of the Day. I’ll try to get through the rest of book … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, MInd, Music, Science, Steven Pinker | Comments Off on Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 3

Emergence, Complexity, and the Potential for Human Understanding

Posted on 16 June 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Here are a couple scientific topics that I don’t pretend to understand, at least not in any depth. What I find fascinating is how, while the big-scale scientific conclusions have been fairly stable for several decades (as noted two weeks … Continue reading →

Posted in MInd, Physics, Science | Comments Off on Emergence, Complexity, and the Potential for Human Understanding

Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 2

Posted on 5 June 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

(Advisory: I’m traveling to Austin TX tomorrow through Sunday, and so will not be posting here until next Monday, likely.) A key point about this book is that Pinker shows how the facts (the science) of human nature undermine both … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, MInd, Psychology, Steven Pinker | Comments Off on Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 2

Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 1

Posted on 4 June 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: “The Modern Denial of Human Nature” (Viking, Oct. 2002, 509pp, including 75pp appendix, notes, references, and index) This is an enormous, thorough book on a topic already covered to some extent by several of the other major books I’ve … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, MInd, Psychology, science fiction, Steven Pinker | Comments Off on Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 1

Oliver Sacks, THE MAN WHO MISTOOK HIS WIFE FOR A HAT

Posted on 26 March 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Like the Pinker and Wilson volumes I’ve covered here recently, this is another classic nonfiction book, one I first read years ago without taking notes (maybe before I began taking notes on my reading). So I skimmed through it again … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, MInd, Psychology, science fiction | Comments Off on Oliver Sacks, THE MAN WHO MISTOOK HIS WIFE FOR A HAT

EO Wilson, CONSILIENCE, 8

Posted on 15 March 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Chapter 9, The Social Sciences Now Wilson begins takes his conclusions about human nature and searches for ways to bring insight, if not explanation, to various aspects of human culture, in particular studies in the humanities that are supposedly resistant to … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Human Progress, MInd, Psychology, Science | Comments Off on EO Wilson, CONSILIENCE, 8