Category Archives: Book Notes

Daniel C. Dennett, BREAKING THE SPELL, post 3

Posted on 5 May 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

A few more notes, and quotes.

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Daniel C. Dennett, BREAKING THE SPELL, post 2

Posted on 3 May 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Finishing up key points and detailed notes on the second half of this book. Will have some general comments, and notes on the appendices, tomorrow.

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Daniel C. Dennett, BREAKING THE SPELL, post 1

Posted on 2 May 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s a book published in 2006. The author, Daniel C. Dennett, is a professor of philosophy at Tufts University. He became grouped among the four so-called “new atheists” of the 2000s, along with Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and Christopher Hitchens, … Continue reading →

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Michel Onfray, ATHEIST MANIFESTO, summary

Posted on 30 April 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

One more time.

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Michel Onfray, ATHEIST MANIFESTO, post 2

Posted on 29 April 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Finishing my summary and comments about this book. (From here on I’m preserving the author’s chapter section breaks, with titles, to illustrate the structure of the book…)

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Michel Onfray, ATHEIST MANIFESTO, post 1

Posted on 28 April 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Here is the most recent nonfiction book I’ve read this year; except for one, all the nf books I’ve read this year are now written up on this site. This book was published in French in 2005, and in English … Continue reading →

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Closing Out Prothero

Posted on 23 April 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

I didn’t quite finish my write-up of Prothero’s GOD IS NOT ONE yesterday. So a few more comments. With a lagniappe.

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Stephen Prothero, GOD IS NOT ONE (2010)

Posted on 22 April 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Here is a book I’ve mentioned a couple times, having read portions of it over the years since it was published. Only last month did I read it all the way through. Mixed review. The book makes some excellent points … Continue reading →

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Richard Dawkins: THE BLIND WATCHMAKER (1986)

Posted on 19 April 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

This now 35-year-old book was Dawkins’ third, following the famous The Selfish Gene (summary here) and the less-famous sequel The Extended Phenotype (which I still have not read). If the first two were relatively straightforward explanations of evolution and natural … Continue reading →

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More on Bookstores

Posted on 17 April 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Quick post for today. Here’s an item in today’s paper about Barnes & Noble, which makes some points similar to my discussion here on the 11th. NYT, Elizabeth A. Harris, posted 15 April 2022, in print today: How Barnes & … Continue reading →

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