To listen the gift of listening, one must first listen What a way to begin the year. This morning I awakened in the dark before the alarm went off, which is always a good way to start a day. Quiet thoughts ambled through my mind for a while. At the conclusion of a chain of thoughts which have now […]
Phlosiphy and Langwidge
This "Phlosiphy and Langwidge" category is for when what I write doesn't fit into my general pursuit of Math and Logic. It usually fits here in the closely-related Phlosafie and Langwij category. It's slightly ironic that I would have a category separating these, since there really is a lot of overlap between Math, Logic, Philosophy, and Language, for me.
Facts without meaning and facts with meaning
As a child growing up, I learned in the public school system designed around the metric of state test scores. Decades later, I have a vague understanding of the general complaint that teaching students to take tests is the wrong way to teach, but only today do I understand that complaint in a […]
Thinking about a rare opposite of Schadenfreude which is neither Freudefreude nor Mudita but Schadenmitgefühl
The wild headline is intentional because the audience for this article will most likely arrive here by search engines, as people are trying to find "the opposite of schadenfreude," but not the obvious opposite. Of these visitors only a few will appreciate this little word adventure here, […]
On writing what is impossible to say, on what cannot be said but only shown
I'm going to write about something that is impossible to say. And I mean quite literally impossible. Even the writing of it -- and your reading -- will capture only a glimpse of what I am communicating, though I will write quite a lot of words in order to provide the right context to that tiny […]
Wittgenstein's future triumph over the positivists will be glorious
I just confirmed a hunch using Wikipedia in the manner where it excels: providing well-known facts which are not controversial. My hunch was that logical positivism traces directly back to the deep insight Wittgenstein introduced as the concluding statement of his Logico-Tractatus, where he makes a […]
The will to meaning is the very spark of life
In studying the meaning of meaning, the will to meaning, and the meaning in how purport and import align -- these are the two meanings of every word in a sentence* -- it becomes clear: Understanding meaning is enlightening; understanding the meaning of meaning is empowering. The more we seek […]
Why is Noam Chomsky stumped by the idea of evolution for memes?
In this video, Noam Chomsky on Jung, Wittgenstein, and Gödel (Ask Me Anything), Chomsky receives a question where he either completely misses the point of the question, or is simply not informed on Daniel Dennett's idea that memes evolve in a manner which is similar to the way genes evolve (one […]
Moving from binary to trinary is harder than from trinary to binary
Taking the Shortcut by W. H. Norton Moving from binary logic to trinary logic is harder than from trinary to binary. Today I suddenly realized this, and was delighted because it solves one of the deeper "why" questions on the prevalence of binary logic, which is everywhere, in everything […]
A binary mindset is actually a single-minded sort of thing
How binary looks like a unity It occurred to me the other day that one of the obstacles preventing people from understanding how binary logic penetrates into every aspect of their lives, and how this pervasiveness causes all kinds of problems they cannot see -- just like fish cannot "see" […]
The Categorical Moral Imperative of the Dunning-Kruger Effect
The imperative is as plain as day, once you see it. And ironically well-hidden from those who consider themselves smart. I finally found a way to convey an elusive degree of intelligence which is primarily compassionate, an idea which I long contemplated, but could never put into words as well as I […]
Another way of seeing is embedded in how you see now
A story I once heard, but a quick search didn't turn up details, so if others have more information, let me know in the comments: Somewhere in the 70s there was a drive to develop software for Air Traffic Controllers to use. The first iteration of the software was an abysmal failure. The second […]
On the central home for humility within genius
I first encountered reference to Schopenhauer in "Love Can Open Prison Doors" by Starr Daily, which is a truly remarkable story, short enough you can get through it in a day or two. This slim volume provides the best insight into the mechanics of love I have yet encountered. Daily was a […]
On group dynamics and critical thinking
A friend told me a story recently, and it so purely reveals a dynamic we do not often see clearly, I'm delighted to discover it. I think it is quite a profound insight. He is a member of an online group discussing a new cryptocurrency, one of many hundreds of similar groups, each of which is in a […]
A conspiracy theory must involve Laniakean red strings somehow to be legit
What's up with the maze of red strings that somehow defines the crazy consipiracy-theorist in the movies? It's a meme that shows up often. I personally think the image is beautiful (I mean the Platonic form of the idea, not the actual screenshots from scenes in movies). Such complexity! Such […]
The Psychology of Uncertainty and Three-Valued Truth Tables
The best evidence I've encountered yet that the way we've learned to use binary logic is not our natural way of thinking comes out of psychology, where they have developed a trivalent way to evaluate truth values out of necessity, because people keep using logic this way, naturally: Psychological […]
Salomon Maimon's finite intellect is akin to Bernardo Kastrup's alters
My previous post was about a nice little tidbit from Salomon Maimon where I found him describing a way of reading Immanual Kant that was analogous to a way I study math (while protecting an internal intuitive coherence which I feel certain would become fragmented if I read other writers more […]
The logical necessity of honoring your parents
Perhaps it can be expressed in acorn form first, but there is a large and complex tree buried in this insight, which will take a lot of room to fully express. To start, we have this realization that is predicated in a sense of survival, a sense of continuity. Whether it arises in reaction to a […]
You cannot step outside infinity to perform an operation on or within infinity
Okay, it's a pretty raw tangle of thought experiment, but here we go: You can't. There is no such thing as multiple infinities. Imagine if there were, all such multiple infinities would simply exist within a "larger" infinity that is ultimately singular. That ultimately singular one is the […]
Something from Nothing or Nothing from Something?
Hebrew mysticism, in a typically non-binary manner, answers the question of Something from Nothing vs Nothing from Something with "Both, depending on your perspective." Ayin is closely associated with the Ein Sof (Hebrew ??? ???, meaning "no end", "without an end" ), […]
Shallow Christians don't admire Reinhold Niebuhr
I confess I had no idea what Reinhold Niebuhr's position was until I was puzzled by the following citation where Obama describes him as one of his favorite philosophers during an interview with David Brooks (it might help to know this was pre-president Obama, back when he was the idealist who hadn't […]