Category Archives: MInd

Nicholas Humphrey, LEAPS OF FAITH

Posted on Saturday 24 May 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitle: “Science, Miracles, and the Search for Supernatural Consolation” (Basic Books, Jan. 1996, 244pp, including 20pp notes and index) (Chatto & Windus, 1995, as Soul Searching: Human Nature and Supernatural Belief) Here’s a book I read when it came out, … Continue reading →

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George Lakoff, THE POLITICAL MIND

Posted on Monday 6 January 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “Why You Can’t Understand 21st-Century American Politics with an 18th-Century Brain” (Viking, June 2008, 292pp, including 20pp of acknowledgements, notes, and index.) Note that the paperback edition from 2009 changed the subtitle to “A Cognitive Scientist’s Guide to Your … Continue reading →

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Brian Greene: UNTIL THE END OF TIME, post 3

Posted on Thursday 8 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

More summary of this Brian Greene book. Earlier: post 1, post 2. Today’s chapters concern how life gave rise to consciousness, and how mind gave rise to the imagination, and to stories. Ch5, Particles and Consciousness: From Life to Mind, … Continue reading →

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Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 8

Posted on Wednesday 31 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

This time: Gender. Are there innate differences between the sexes, or not? What does denial of the Blank Slate say about gender policies? And about rape. Earlier posts about this book: post 1, post 2, post 3, post 4, post … Continue reading →

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Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 7

Posted on Tuesday 30 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Today: Violence. Are humans inherently violent? Is war inevitable? Or is violence learned behavior? This chapter, of course, anticipates Pinker’s later book, THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE, which documents how violence has *declined* throughout human history, though that’s a … Continue reading →

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Today’s Post About How Politics Illustrates Human Nature, For Better or Worse, Mostly Worse

Posted on Monday 29 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

How Republicans cheer mass deportation; How JD Vance’s comments reflect conservative values that prioritize children over adults; Two pieces about how Republican values have been abandoned their traditional core values, in the service of a tyrant; Items about the deliberate … Continue reading →

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Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 6

Posted on Monday 29 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

The final section of the book is about various “Hot Button” topics: politics, violence, gender, children, and the arts. These chapters show how the doctrines of the blank slate, the noble savage, and the ghost in the machine have been … Continue reading →

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Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 5

Posted on Wednesday 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 →

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There Is No Other Place

Posted on Sunday 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 →

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Save the Children?

Posted on Thursday 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 →

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