Arbitrary Marks

The Center for Buddhist Studies at Columbia University has posted a podcast by Mark Blum that should be interesting for Unitarian Universalists and Buddhist practitioners (and especially those who consider themselves in both camps).
I’m about three-quarters through the lecture, which I listened to during my delay at the Austin airport yesterday. Blum’s main thesis is that [...]

For anyone who hasn’t heard the news, a transman named Thomas Beatie is pregnant. I read about the news first in The Advocate, but it seems the story has spread to mainstream media, including Oprah. I’ve watched some clips from MSNBC and other news sources where anchors have made fun of the situation, remarking [...]

This morning at Oak Park Unity Temple, the sermon topic was “Mammal Mind, Hard Drive Heart.” In an attempt to focus the congregation on what her thesis would be, the reverend encouraged us to reflect on our humanity, our emotions, our intelligence, our ability to be silly–things that animals like squid can’t do.

At that point, I realized I read too much PZ Myers because I started defending cephalopods. “They’re smart and they have emotions, too!” I started whispering to my wife beside me. “Shhh!”

So I drew this little guy. But hang on, because there’s a bit more to the story than a funny doodle in church.

My small group discussion on the Nicomachean Ethics and Facebook was today, and from the buzz in the room and the subsequent dialogue we had as a class, it went well. I had expected to find undergraduates, who are at least ten years younger than me and part of “Generation Y”, to think Facebook is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Not so.

In prepping for my discussion of Aristotle, friendship and Facebook, I found this article online, anticipating my take on the subject. Actually, Google “Aristotle Facebook” and you’ll get quite a few musings on how the philosopher might react to social networking sites.
Anyway, I didn’t find anyone who created a page for the philosopher, which I’ve [...]

MySpace versus Facebook in the realm of Aristotelian ethics. Would Aristotle add my Zombie application or be one of my Top Friends?

Is knowledge “intrinsically the common property of a group or else nothing at all?” This quote comes from a postscript to Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, and refers to “scientific” knowledge in the original. But social constructivists like Kenneth Bruffee, whose Collaborative Learning I just read, think the point applies to all [...]

Tomorrow I start teaching The Nicomachean Ethics for my class at Loyola. In order to get through Mill, Kant and then on to some moderns, I’ve assigned a single chapter per class period.  That means that in a 50-minute period, we’ll be working through twenty-some pages of dense Aristotelian virtue ethics.
I’m excited about it, though, [...]

So, this semester is a relatively light one for me. As I’ve mentioned, I’m teaching a class at Loyola University (an ethics core requirement), another at the Newberry Library (which doesn’t start for a while, but is on religion and the mind), and taking another quarter of Sanskrit. Naturally, people think I’m insane when I [...]

What do Indian surrogate mothers bearing American babies for a fee have in common with undercover caterpillars, posing as ant larvae?