Sense and Function

Politics, Philosophy, Art, Media, Environment, and Economics
Editor’s Pick
MAY 11, 2012 11:01AM

Dear White Men Defending Black Studies,


Picture possibly by Builder Levy, possibly in Memphis, 1968. 
The white men are not wearing the sign. Intentional or accidental, this makes the point that the military presence underlines.

A writer for the debate section of the Chronicle of Higher Education (CHE)… Read full post »
MAY 3, 2012 7:58PM

10,000 Views!

10,000 Years = The Long Now I just noticed that this blog passed the 10,000 view-mark today. All that since I started the blog at the very end of November, 2011. Thanks, everybody: keep reading, writing, and reposting!

Mark

Also, go check out the Long Now website,/…

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On reading this genuinely revolting article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, I feel compelled to sign this petition challenging the CHE at least to withdraw the article, and at most, to discipline its author. The author, Naomi Schaefer Riley, was responding
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APRIL 14, 2012 9:41PM

Why Cloud Gate, Chicago?


Cloud Gate, or, the Bean

Let's play a game: What are the top three symbols of Chicago? One of them will probably be "Cloud Gate," the beautiful polished steel shape in Millennium Park, at the heart of Chicago. What is it like, and
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MARCH 28, 2012 1:26AM

The Death of Coal



David Roberts, in an article for grist.org, wrote an article recently about the top five things you need to know about EPA’s new carbon ruleHe points out that the EPA recently passed tough new rules for carbon emissions from power plants: 


In his interview for CBC, Stephen Harper portrayed the decision about the Northern Gateway pipeline as a choice between jobs and environmental health. This is an old and false opposition: people do not choose between wealth and health. They want to have both. This is a framing problem. Two pos/… Read full post »
MARCH 21, 2012 12:00AM

Tar Sands: Risky or Damaging?


There are two Alberta tar sands pipelines, which environmentalists and people from the community have condemned as damaging. The communications manager for the Northern Gateway pipeline to the Pacific coast of Canada, Paul Stanway, re-cast its existence not as damaging, but as risky. He callsRead full post »

The media noise about Sandra Fluke, pushed onto the national stage by Rush Limbaugh's disgusting verbal attacks, the alienation of his advertisers, his inadequate written apology follows very nicely after the numerous bills intended to regulate women's reproductive organs (including, among othe/…

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A friend asked me: "What is going on in Heidegger's Origin of the Work of Art?" This is my rough response.

In general, one of the virtues of Heidegger's philosophical work is that it forces us to de-compartmentalize our concepts and activities. Things that normally appear to be quite… Read full post »
FEBRUARY 24, 2012 2:11PM

The Terrifying Cost of the Tar Sands

I am extremely upset by this recent TEDxVictoria talk about "The True Cost of Oil."

Downstream from the un-lined tailings ponds are a number of aboriginal communities. People know that you cannot eat the fish from the river or drink the water because it is cancerous, carcinogenic. And yet, some…

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FEBRUARY 22, 2012 8:36PM

Body-Movement and Photography

Vermont Field 

Vermont Field

I have for several years been engaged in a photographic project about unmanageable, unphotographable scenes, landscapes, or subjects. See my photography and movement post on blogger for full images.

I took this photograph of a field in Peacham, Vermont, because… Read full post »

Gottlob Frege

Edmund Husserl

Gary Gutting recently wrote an article on the Continental/Analytic divide for NYT's The Stone. The discussion is fairly even-handed, and argues that Continental and Analytic philosophers should learn from each other. Gutting also holds up as exemplar/Read full post »

FEBRUARY 9, 2012 7:36PM

Political Effects of Thoughtlessness

I posted recently about what I think is an epidemic of thoughtlessness. This epidemic may always have been this bad, but with the spread of electronic media there are good reasons for thinking it might be worse now, not least because there are so many more opportunities for distraction, which interfe… Read full post »
FEBRUARY 7, 2012 7:11PM

Wall Street, Castrated?



Banks are backed into a corner, and the boom years aren't going to come back soon. A recent article in the Times, entitled “Is This the End of Wall Street As They Knew It?” makes the claim that "Banks have always had occasional bad
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Editor’s Pick
FEBRUARY 7, 2012 12:29PM

Can Occupy and the Tea Party Agree About Something?

Drumming against the failure of the un-free market
Drumming against the failure of the un-free market
 
When you really get down to it, The Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street are both trying to defend everyone. They disagree about who the enemy is, but agree on the problems: the diminishing middle class, a systematic corruption
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You'll find here information about Monsanto and Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). There is a story in these links. It is a story about the environment, local farms, federal and international governments, the attempt to sneak GMOs into our food supply by figh… Read full post »
FEBRUARY 4, 2012 6:55PM

An Epidemic of Thoughtlessness?


At the risk of seeming politically incorrect, I have to say that thoughtlessness is an epidemic. We need to look at what forms being thoughtless might take, and what thought might be.
 
A lot of… Read full post »
 Toxic Sludge on a Tailings Pond, Canada
 
The Obama Administration's January 18 decision to reject the Republican 60-day limit on the environmental assessment of the Keystone XL pipeline kicks the can down the road... straight to this year's election. The Alberta tar sands pipeline has become a political hot button/… Read full post »
In line with their earlier attacks on environmental groups on behalf of the oil companies behind Alberta's tar sands extraction, some opposition to the Northern Gateway oil sands pipeline has been declared the enemy of the Government of Canada and the enemy of the People of Canada. This is/… Read full post »
JANUARY 25, 2012 12:00AM

Why GDP is Not Related to Well-Being

The Problem with GDP Accounting 

One lesson of the Occupy movement is that economic value is not the only or even the most important kind of value. In fact, economic activity has no necessary correlation with well-being, and in significant cases, thrives on sickness and catastrophe.

One reason… Read full post »

NOVEMBER 26, 2011 1:40AM

Thanksgiving Trip to the Northeast

This trip has been all about color:








The sun had passed underneath the thin layer of high cloud, as the earth tilted away from it, until the sun was lighting the cloud from beneath. This/…

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NOVEMBER 22, 2011 5:26AM

Jeremy Walker's blog

Definitely have a look at this blog. My brother is one thoughtful man: http://jerwalkie.wordpress.com/

In particular, he has great posts on Freedom and Responsibility
"I agree that personal freedom is something we don’t have enough of in our society.  I just disagree with the strategy of… Read full post »
NOVEMBER 21, 2011 6:12PM

Delsarte's own words - a poem

Delsarte’s own words:

fathers.
find no difficulty in attributing to invisible bodies
both the plan and the execution of the beings
who people the universe.

To such a degree of degradation can reason drag man down.Read full post »
NOVEMBER 21, 2011 4:20PM

On Getting into Philosophy

One of the most valuable people in any endeavor is the person who can work out what the problems really are that we need to work on. Students who come to university and into philosophy classes, however, often have the idea that they come to learn theories, that… Read full post »