God, what a great idea!

If there is no God, then God is incalculably the greatest single creation of the human imagination. No other creation of the imagination has been so fertile of ideas, so great an inspiration to philosophy, to literature, to painting, sculpture, architecture, and drama. Set beside the idea of God, the most original inventions of mathematicians [...]

an eye shadow named “mildew” (abstract vs concrete language)

For a while I’ve been curious as to how metaphors, similes, sense-oriented details — anything that gives the mind something “concrete” to grasp — work on the reader’s mind. It’s probably just something to do with the fact that we are embodied creatures, and since our physical life gives us, obviously, our most vivid experiences, [...]

the snow-ological proof of the existence of God

[Originally posted on our Writing Center blog]
Yay! Our first snow! Woo hoo! Four-plus inches, I’d say. It’s just now starting to slow down. It’s been snowing since, what?, 3 or 4 am?
Wow, my serotonin shoots up when it snows. Why? No, it’s not because I’m an ex southern Californian. All, if not most of, [...]

Incarnate Your Ideas (Be Specific)

Last weekend I found a copy of Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mind in one volume at the local Y’s Service Club book sale. I’ve just read a couple of chapters so far (they’re more vignettes than chapters, really). One of them — “Be Specific” — may be the best explanation for [...]

Roger Scruton on Sex: What in any of this requires heterosexuality?

I just finished Roger Scruton’s An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Philosophy (1996). I’d planned on summarizing and responding to each chapter in order. But I gotta jump to his chapter on sex.
Glenn Branch, an amazon.com reviewer, says that Scruton claims “a uniquely privileged moral status for heterosexual monogamy.” Thing is, in this chapter at [...]

NOTES ON Linda E. Patrik’s “Using Blogs to Teach Philosophy”

notes from NOTES & IDEAS: Using Blogs to Teach Philosophy by Linda E. Patrik (submitted December 12, 2005).
1) It helps students get used to the “I” of philosophical writing, the “I” of making an argument with an actual audience in mind. And it makes them more confident in making those arguments.
2) It works best to [...]