None of that answers the question: What right does anybody have to coerce/force anybody into having an identity? What right does anybody have to creat...
They don't. They simply say, "We will call you..." They do not say, "You will be identified as..." I have never heard of any parent saying to his/her ...
I think that they are related. But the way that I would characterize the second feature is this: if a point that you are making is that the rules of l...
My observation is that the one thing people who ridicule or dismiss postmodernism almost invariably leave out is this context: postmodernism is a resp...
Wasn't that malicious behavior around before anybody ever heard of "postmodernism"? Wasn't it around as part of pre-modernity and modernity? Weren't M...
But if I remember correctly, the American Anthropological Association Statement on Race says: 1.) There are no biological races in the human species. ...
It is probably buried in the many sticky notes on my phone or in a folder full of links I emailed to myself. Iconoclastic works in anthropological the...
It seems to me like quantities may be non-linguistic thoughts. I have read that some traditional cultures only had words for what in English are "one"...
Cultural anthropology, especially economic anthropology and ecological anthropology. Development, colonialism, neo-colonialism, North/South political ...
Then you might appreciate this: authors from Mexico and India using Wendell Berry as a source. In Grassroots Post-Modernism: Remaking the Soil of Cult...
If anybody could recommend any work by women I would appreciate it. I have not discovered prose fiction or poetry as intellectual documents to use on ...
I don't really have favorite philosophical books. My favorite books are all from the social sciences. But Thomas Nagel's What Does It All Mean?: A Ver...
What is "traditional" about devoting all of one's life to consuming commodities? Everything I have read says that such a way of life appeared only rel...
No discussion of category mistakes would be complete without anybody mentioning "religion". To me it almost always feels like when people are debating...
If monogamy is just a cultural feature, why is it being singled out? Nobody asks if other features of cultures, such as working in cubicles, are moral...
I can see how asking "What is the meaning of life?" can open a lot of doors to understanding and wisdom for some people. Even if it contains a categor...
Do you think that we have done that collectively? Empirical science has all the answers! The answer must be in physics! Don't waste your time with phi...
But the OP is prescribing a certain approach to intellectual functioning and saying that the lack of that approach is unacceptable. I am saying that t...
I am inclined to think that the question "Does God exist?" is nonsense. But what may be nonsense to me may be the key that opens many doors of underst...
Before previously responding I read this: I then responded with this: What may subjectively be "nonsense" to a lot of people or objectively be "nonsen...
I'm not defending or criticizing the practice of or idealization of monogamy. I'm trying to be objective here. I believe if we are going to be objecti...
People should function intellectually in whatever way meets their needs. Reason, logic, grammar, concepts, etc. are tools to be employed to do the wor...
A popular argument seems to go like this: monogamy is not natural, therefore it is bad. In other words, monogamy is an instrument used to oppress and ...
I am not even convinced that progress is real. Sure, improvements are made. But improvements are not proof of the existence of a linear, cumulative, i...
"Rather, an all-quadrant, all-level approach to ecology allows us to situate the physiosphere, the biosphere, the noosphere, and the theosphere in the...
That strikes me as extreme ethnocentrism. As I am sure plenty of thinkers have pointed out, in some environments there were no animals suitable for do...
We can accurately predict the behavior of sub-atomic particles, the atmosphere, trees, etc., right? Maybe if determinism is true such predicting is it...
Apparently "Free will is an illusion" means "The belief that you are anything more than a collection of matter and energy behaving according to univer...
I don't have a conception of free will. I am reporting, as requested, what I think people who say "Free will is an illusion" have in mind. Notice that...
It seems to always be presented as one part of a binary: free will vs. determinism. And determinism seems to always be presented as saying, "You thoug...
Yet, we have people stating unequivocally that "Free will is an illusion". If somebody says "Vanilla bean cupcakes are an illusion" then it is clear h...
Is it falsifiable or not? I doubt that Sam Harris is the only person saying it. Alex Rosenberg, among others, has probably said it. Let's not make thi...
I believe that Ken Wilber offers a lot of helpful insights in his work that if heeded might inform some of the change we need to avoid further ecologi...
On the contrary, I have moments when I forget about everything that has been thrown on my shoulders. I do not think that any words can do justice to t...
In A Short History of Progress Ronald Wright shows how people in earlier civilizations such as Easter Island and the Maya saw red flags, tried to stav...
Biological race does not exist. Race is a cultural construct. See the American Anthropological Association Statement on Race. If you want to do your p...
But if it is obvious that everything is great and will only get better, why write long books about it? Like Berman said, if it's something that is obv...
Everybody should read Max Weber: A Critical Introduction, by Kieran Allen. Allen shows how Weber's work was motivated by his personal political agenda...
No I am not. No I am not. Every objection to my "is" has turned out to be unfounded. That does not mean that it is ever economically justified. I have...
Trees were harvested, wood was turned into pulp, ink was made, plates for a printing press were made, etc. to produce a value-added product: a dollar ...
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