The Empty Vessels That was the name of the band my brother and I formed circa 1964. I played drums, my brother Keith played rhythm guitar, Paul Taylor played lead guitar, Andrew Highley sang (with backup from Keith and Paul), and we had revolving bass players. We rehearsed in spaces around town, arranged by my […]
Beatles’ Covers The orthodox view is that the Beatles recorded covers before they came into their full powers and wrote their own songs, which made for much better records. This is completely wrong: their covers were magnificent, their originals not always that great. They should have continued to record covers throughout their career; it might […]
Dark Mind It is a melancholy thought that one’s internal organs live out their life in complete darkness.[1] They never see the light of day or feel the warmth of the sun upon them. Sunlight is unknown to them; no photons reach their surface. The brain is only centimeters from the sun-bathed head but it […]
Solutionism I will define solutionism as the doctrine that all philosophical problems have solutions that are in principle available to us. It is the opposite of mysterianism. It characterizes an attitude or mindset with respect to the problems of philosophy—the solubility attitude or assumption. It deserves to be called an ideology. I can best explain […]
Philosophy Summarized Philosophy is a human construction with a human history, like art and politics. It has origins, antecedents, revolutions, and counterrevolutions. It evolves. I am going to describe this history from Descartes to the present day. The brush will be broad but hard-edged. It is all about Descartes and reactions to him. He had […]
Intellectual Impact I am interested in the intellectual impact of this blog on the minds of its readers (who range from all over the world). What is it doing to your minds? I ask this as an educational psychologist manque. What you get here is a barrage of subversive thought, relative to received opinion, though […]
Womanly Men I have argued that all men are biologically women to some degree, because of pregnancy and child rearing.[1]This should have implications for psychology: male psychology should include a female psychological component. Do we see any sign of that? We can certainly imagine a species much like us except that the males are psychologically […]
