Category Archives: ways of knowing

Tanya Luhrmann, Halloween, and Ghost Pets

Posted on November 1, 2013 by hessd

I want to begin this consideration of paranormal experiences with the first line of the Wikipedia entry under T. M. Luhrman.[1] “Tanya Marie Luhrmann (born 1959) is an American psychological anthropologist best known for her studies of modern-day witches, charismatic … Continue reading →

Posted in Living My Life, Paying Attention, ways of knowing | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

I’m Either Sleepy or Angry

Posted on September 22, 2013 by hessd

This is an honest dilemma.  We’ll talk about what a lemma is in just a moment.  It may not be a dilemma for this particular child, whom Bette says is about 8 months old.  And even if it were a … Continue reading →

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What Steven Pinker Should Have Said

Posted on August 24, 2013 by hessd

On August 6, The New Republic published “Science Is Not Your Enemy: An impassioned plea to neglected novelists, embattled professors, and tenure-less historians,” an essay by Steven Pinker.  It was an attempt to claim the word “scientism” for scientists and … Continue reading →

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If It’s Not About the Nail, What IS it About?

Posted on June 27, 2013 by hessd

With any luck at all, I will embed a wonderful short clip called “It’s Not About the Nail” in this post.  If it doesn’t work, I recommend that you Google “It’s not about the nail” and enjoy the following 78 … Continue reading →

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Hearing God’s Voice

Posted on June 25, 2013 by hessd

How do you go about “hearing God’s voice?”  I’m not sure, to tell you the truth.  It isn’t anything I’ve ever been good at.  It may be that I just don’t have the basic capacity.  Or it may be that … Continue reading →

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Can You Be Too Skeptical?

Posted on June 11, 2013 by hessd

Yes.  You can. I want to refer, down the page a little, to a controversy between medical doctors.  Dr. Andrew Newberg, whom I know only from his recorded lectures, called “The Spiritual Brain” is one; the other is Dr. Steven … Continue reading →

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Remembering Bonnie Zawacki, Part II

Posted on May 22, 2013 by hessd

In Part I, I passed along to you Bonnie Klein’s recollections of herself as a college student; Bonnie Zawacki, studying causal attribution with me at Westminster College.  The two of us—Bonnie and I—talked about building a new lens, a lens … Continue reading →

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Remembering Socrates

Posted on May 14, 2013 by hessd

“The unexamined life is not worth living,” said Socrates.  I don’t think I would go quite that far, myself.  I do think I would say that in most cases, the properly examined life is “better” than the alternatives.  This comes … Continue reading →

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Getting in Shape and Staying in Shape

Posted on May 9, 2013 by hessd

So here are a few dumb questions.  Do you have enough fuel?  Are you tall enough?  Do you really think she cares that much about you? I have no wish to pejorate—ordinarily, I would have said “minimize” or something, but … Continue reading →

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What are pejorative words for?

Posted on April 25, 2013 by hessd

In 1893, Robert Louis Stevenson wrote a book called Catriona—a book I had never heard of until today.  Nor did I know until today that the word I had in mind to begin this reflection on language, pejorative, was a … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics, ways of knowing, Words | Tagged , , | 2 Comments