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Quote [Jul. 7th, 2009|10:55 am]
 "In some, or all of these respects, most modern philosophers have been, in effect, Cartesians. Now without wishing to return to scholasticism, it seems to me that modern science and modern logic requires us to stand upon a very different platform from this.
  1. We cannot begin with complete doubt. We must begin with the prejudices which we actually have when we enter upon the study of philosophy. These prejudices are not to be dispelled by a maxim, for they are things which it does not occur to us can be questioned. Hence this initial scepticism will be a mere self-deception, and not real doubt; and no one who follows the Cartesian method will ever be satisfied until he has formally recovered all those beliefs which in form he has given up. It is, therefore, as useless a preliminary as going to the North Pole would be in order to get to Constantinople by coming down regularly upon a meridian. A person may, it is true, in the course of his studies, find reason to doubt what he began by believing; but in that case he doubts because he has a positive reason for it, and not on account of the Cartesian maxim. Let us not pretend to doubt in philosophy what we do not doubt in our hears."
- Peirce, from Some Consequences of Four Incapacities.

He also criticizes the following characteristic of Cartesianism: "The multiform argumentation of the middle ages is replaced by a single thread of inference depending often upon inconspicuous premises."

Peirce is so cool. :-)

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Question [Jun. 24th, 2009|04:15 pm]
This is based on a fascinating paper I was reading today. What are people's first reactions to the question I ask below (assuming that I'm not trying to be tricky.)

Do you believe that intentionally thinking about an anxiety provoking or traumatic event causes more emotional arousal and pain the more detailed it is or the less detailed? For example, imagine you were in a car accident. Do you think remembering the car accident in general - what you felt, thought, your impressions - will be more or less painful than remembering the car accident and focusing on exactly what you saw, smelled, heard, tasted, etc? 
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Funny [Mar. 18th, 2009|08:15 am]
I discovered this show, The Guild, and it is hysterical. It is a comedy about a group of online gamers. I highly recommend you all check it out (and tell me what you think.) I loved it.

The web address for the show is: http://www.watchtheguild.com/ 
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(no subject) [Mar. 3rd, 2009|10:23 pm]
These photos are from a psychology conference I attended over the weekend. I thought they were pretty fascinating. The first SPECT scan is of a normal brain.

 
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Dorkiness [Dec. 10th, 2008|03:46 pm]
I am the biggest absolute dork in the world. Today I got in the mail the book, "Reading And Understanding More Multivariate Statistics" (Grimm, G. L., & Yarnold, P. R. Eds.). There is a chapter in it that covers cluster analysis, a huge interest of mine, and it is AWESOME!!! It explains things beautifully, has diagrams, examples, and even includes a complicated flow chart explaining exactly how to do it. And, to make things even better, it also has a chapter with similar information on meta-analysis.

I haven't finished reading the chapter yet. It is dense. But I am so excited.
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Book [Dec. 9th, 2008|08:46 pm]
I am reading one of the best books I have read in a very long time. It is by Eric Kandel, a nobel prize winner in physiology/medicine, and is a memoir of his life in science. It describes how he discovered the neurobiological basis of memory along with all the detail of what he discovered. It is so well written you don't realize that you are getting neuroscience lectures from a brilliant teacher. A lot of it is material you would get in an advanced neuroscience class but you don't notice because it is interspersed with his memoir and builds up so naturally and gradually. He also uses a ton of metaphors to make things intuitive and clear. I highly, highly recommend it if memoirs of science interest you or you are fascinated by memory. I also recommend it as just a plain old memoir. The author is a great writer and has a wonderful sense of humor.

I met him years ago at Gustavus. He was a speaker at the Nobel Conference and I was a host for another one of the speakers. He was an elderly man at the time, but we joked about going out dancing and partying at the dive or maybe a party. The thing is, I think he might have taken me up on it. The other impression I had of him was that he was the most intelligent person I had ever met. I still feel that way and the book just reinforces my belief. His writing and thinking is so clear and beautiful. I am honestly in awe of what he must have been like as a teacher.

Anyway.

The book is: "In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind" by Eric R. Kandel.
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So cool [Sep. 20th, 2008|12:52 pm]
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(no subject) [Sep. 13th, 2008|12:22 pm]
This made me happy.

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Lawyer [Aug. 25th, 2008|11:03 am]
I have now submitted by transfer to active status. Soon I'll be an active lawyer again. How crazy is that.
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(no subject) [Jul. 22nd, 2008|03:06 am]
I'm busy converting my license status from inactive to active. This requires that I attend a whole lot of CLE courses and make up educational hours that I should have been acquiring as active. So far I've gone to ones on: the basics of civil litigation (all day); and Understanding Problem Gambling (only 2 hours.) Today (my birthday,) I have How to Collect Debts in Minnesota. This is followed on Wednesday by trusts (all day) and Thursday by Mortgage Foreclosure (all day.) The sick thing is i'm pretty sure I'm going to like it. It's like being back in school full time. I'm also learning an incredible amount. I'm the first to admit that if I could go back I would do law school a little bit differently. I focused almost entirely on the theory classes and avoided the practical advocacy courses. I'm getting the practical side from the CLEs and it is great. I am also learning even more and more how messed up pretty much everything with the redistricting lawsuit was.

Small almost irresistable urges are funny. My swimming isn't fast anymore, but at one time I was above average as a competitive swimmer at a D3 school. I wasn't great, but I was good. I'm so far away from the shape and expertise, and feel for the water that I had back then. As part of that lifestyle I also taught swim lessons for 7+ years and was a water safety instructor. Sometimes I see something in the stroke of the person next to me that would be incredibly easy to fix and would have a dramatic impact on his or her swimming. For example, today the person breathed late which then meant didn't have her fact back into the water by the time her hand came around and... lots of consequences from just a little thing.

I've been doing some legal work. It is a strange feeling. Its nice to be doing something I'm good at. I enjoy the writing. Its an intellectual challenge, and its for a good purpose. What more could someone want. Anyway. I'm going to go back to sleep, hopefully. I've got to be ready for my bootcamp of CLEs.
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Philosophy Quiz [Jul. 13th, 2008|04:02 am]

What philosophy do you follow? (v1.03)
created with QuizFarm.com
You scored as Existentialism

Your life is guided by the concept of Existentialism: You choose the meaning and purpose of your life.

“Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.”
“It is up to you to give [life] a meaning.”
--Jean-Paul Sartre

“It is man's natural sickness to believe that he possesses the Truth.”
--Blaise Pascal

More info at Arocoun's Wikipedia User Page...

Utilitarianism

75%

Existentialism

75%

Hedonism

75%

Justice (Fairness)

50%

Divine Command

45%

Kantianism

25%

Nihilism

15%

Strong Egoism

10%

Apathy

0%
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Free Books [Jul. 2nd, 2008|06:39 am]
Free books, unless you live far away and I'm not planning on visiting.
Then I might ask for a dollar to ship them or coffee next time I see
you. Anyway, I'm working on cleaning the house and getting rid of one
stack in my double stacked bookcase. Progress is moving slowly, but it
is happening. The books in the list below are ones I'm giving up. They
are a mix of everything from good-bad fantasy to Unger's critique of
positivist models of law and Rorty's seminal Philosophy and the Mirror
of Nature. Just write me back as soon as possible and tell me what you
want.

I'm sorry about the e-mail repeats. I would love it if you would send
me an e-mail telling me which is your primary account. Also, if there
is anyone obviously missing, please forward to it and tell them.
Take care,
- Randall

(The formatting copied a bit strange, but you get the idea.)
Topic

▼ ❑ 1 Computing
• ❑ A Goldstein, Adam. Apple Script: The Missing Manual
▼ ❑ 2 Contemporary Fiction
• ❑ A Moore, Christopher. A Dirty Job (Hard Cover [HC])
▼ ❑ 3 Cultural Studies
• ❑ A Schiller, Herbert I. Culture Inc.: The Corporate Takeover of
Public Expression
▼ ❑ 4 Fantasy
• ❑ A Butcher, Jim. Furies Of Calderon
• ❑ B Goodkind, Terry. Wizard's First Rule
• ❑ C Kirkpatrick, Russell. Across the Face of the World
• ❑ D McKinley, Robin. The Blue Sword
• ❑ E Tolkien, J.R.R. The Book of Lost Tales 2
• ❑ F White, T.H. The Once And Future King
▼ ❑ 5 Literature
• ❑ A Golding, William. Lord of the Flies (HC)
• ❑ B Joyce, James. Dubliners
▼ ❑ 6 Philosophy
• ❑ A Bauman, Zygmunt. Modernity and the Holocaust
• ❑ B Camus, Albert. The Rebel
• ❑ C Caputo, John D. (Ed. and Commentary). Deconstruction in a
Nutshell: A Conversation with Jacques Derrida
• ❑ D Eagleton, Terry. The Significance of Theory
• ❑ E Flew, Antony. Thinking Straight
• ❑ F Flynn, Thomas R. Existentialism: A Very Short Introduction
• ❑ G Nagel, Thomas. The View From Nowhere
• ❑ H Quine, W.V. Pursuit of Truth
• ❑ I Rorty, Richard. Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature
• ❑ J Unger, Roberto Mangabeira. Knowledge and Politics
▼ ❑ 7 Political Science
• ❑ A Chomsky, Noam in conversation with Dieterich, Heinz. Latin
America: From Colonization to Globalization
• ❑ B Chomsky, Noam. Powers & Prospects: Reflections on Human Nature
and the Social Order
• ❑ C Chomsky, Noam. Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order
▼ ❑ 8 Psychology
• ❑ A Dukakis, Kitty and Tye, Larry. Shock: The Healing Power of
Electroconvulsive Therapy
• ❑ B Miller, Alice. The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for
the True Self
• ❑ C Wedding, Danny and Corsini, Raymond J. (ed.). Case Studies in
Psychotherapy
▼ ❑ 9 Queer Theory
• ❑ A Halperin, David M. Saint Foucault: Toward a Gay Hagiography
• ❑ B Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. Epistemology of the Closet
▼ ❑ 10 Science Fiction
• ❑ A Lewis, C.S. Perelandra
• ❑ B Lewis, C.S. That Hideous Strength
• ❑ C Sagan, Nick. Edenborn
▼ ❑ 11 Theology
• ❑ A Barclay, William. Introducing the Bible
• ❑ B Borg, Marcus J. The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering A Life of Faith
• ❑ C Dawkins, Richard. The God Delusion
• ❑ D Hitchens, Christopher. God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
• ❑ E Johnson, Elizabeth A. Consider Jesus: Waves of Renewal in Christology
• ❑ F Tillich, Paul. The Shaking of the Foundations
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(no subject) [Jul. 1st, 2008|03:32 pm]
I swam over a mile today. I'm finally starting to feel like I'm getting in shape.
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I can't stop [Jun. 23rd, 2008|12:29 pm]

Your result for The Brain Orientation Test...

You scored 10 * 2 + 4 (+ 10 if you're female) femininity!

Do the math (* = multiplication) and calculate your score!




  • <0 Very masculine brains


  • 0 - 30 Masculine brains


  • 30 - 36 Overlap


  • 36 - 60 Feminine brains


  • >60 Very feminine brains

  • </li>
    Males usually score between 0 and 36, females between 30 and 60.


    Please rate my test and send me feedback if you don't give a '5'.

    Take The Brain Orientation Test at HelloQuizzy

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    Sore [Jun. 22nd, 2008|01:35 am]
    I went on a long bicycle ride today, but now I'm sore in secret places. I don't know how guys bicycle so much.

    B sent me this great link. It made me smile: http://graphjam.com/2008/05/27/song-chart-memes-your-options-when-using-the-force/

    I'm reflecting a little bit on whether unmoderated communities of mentally ill people on the internet are a "good" or "bad" thing. It seems to me like there might be too much understanding (and I think there are different types of understanding) or acceptance of clearly unhealthy and maladaptive behaviors. It seems like some of the same problems one encounters with prisons may be present. When you create prisons you group together a large group of people who are then free to share their skills and reinforce each others' world views and justifications. The same thing happens online in these communities, especially when it comes to world view. Actual techniques for people hurting themselves are usually moderated pretty well.

    Some of this thinking comes from being a member of a group and being frustrated because people kept on posting that they understood what someone was feeling and wanting to do, but no one said she shouldn't do it.
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    Apparently I'm not human [Jun. 5th, 2008|09:52 am]
    I have a somewhat funny, somewhat disturbing story. I have to periodically get my blood lithium levels checked because if the levels are too high it can cause lithium toxicity which is very dangerous. Yesterday morning I got three phone calls from my psychiatrist's office all at around 8:00 a.m. That worried me a bit, so I checked the messages. I had had my blood tested at the clinic the day before and they discovered that my lithium levels were dangerously high. When I called my clinic back they told me to immediately go to urgent care - or if I couldn't get in, the hospital. My blood level was in the moderately to severely toxic range. That is the range of coma, irregular heartbeat, slurred speech, loss of motor control... The interesting thing is, I only had some symptoms of mild toxicity, which is why I got my blood levels tested in the first place.

    The good news is that I am fine. The somewhat funny news is that none of the doctors can explain how it is I had the levels I did and wasn't in the hospital. They even had the lab check their work and it was correct. I also feel noticeably better since the doctor's have been eliminating the lithium from my system.

    It seems to me that the answer is obvious. I'm a superhero. After years of lithium, and a radioactive spider bite, lithium runs through my blood like a river and I am immune. :-)

    Seriously though, everyone is really confused. I should have needed dialysis and I didn't even need to be hospitalized. Craziness.
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    Personality [Jun. 3rd, 2008|11:43 pm]
    My personality type: the dreamy idealist

    So, what do people think? Accurate?
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    Question of the Day [May. 27th, 2008|10:01 pm]
    I just watched Andromeda Strain on A&E, not a very good movie. However, it made me think about a few things. One of them was: do you think the CDC should keep a copy of smallpox or do you think it should be destroyed?

    Am I the only person fascinated by this?
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    California Gay Marriage Ban [May. 15th, 2008|01:05 pm]
    The California Supreme Court overturned the state gay marriage ban! Yay!

    http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-CA-GayMarriage.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
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    Guinea Pig Redux [May. 13th, 2008|09:16 am]
    Anyone want to go through a history and diagnostic evaluation? It is where I ask you lots of questions and then conclude that you are schizophrenic. Okay, that might not exactly be it. Almost all of you are too old to start manifesting schizophrenia and my diagnosis would be meaningless and not to be trusted a since I'm not licensed, but...Admit it. It sounds like fun. :-)
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