Recognizing Me: The Mirror Stage and Self-Understanding
We often debate about what qualifies us as being self-conscious. And we often wonder whether or not an animal like an ape or elephant or dolphin is self-conscious, and how…
The Self It’s Control: How Self-Control and Motivation Can Be Altered by Meaning
When someone mentions “the self,” as in self-consciousness, they could mean many different things by it. I try to limit its definition to the part of our mind which has…
Everything Is Emotion: Questioning the Rational by Feeling
Emotion is the bane of conscious, deliberate actions. Right? Is it not when we are in our fury or lust when we make our most rash decisions—those decisions we quickly…
The Roots of Our Motivation: A Guide to the Evolutionary Approach
What influences our desires and behaviors? We all intuitively believe there is a human nature, but when we try to describe aspects of it, it falls into the trap of…
Natural Representations: The Meeting of Instinct and Symbols
When we talk about instincts, we refer to innate reactions to innately recognizable stimuli. What is implied here is that there are images and perceptions programmed into our biology. There…
What Is a Thing? Or the Not-So-Basic Object of Attention
Philosophy is notorious for asking the esoteric questions about apparently the simplest of notions. And for the most part we scoff at them as irrelevant to our actual lives. Who…
Making Life an Art by Taking from the History of Ideas and Techniques
We often wander our way through life with little guidance. Our parents, friends, role models, and other people we trust have given us some good, explicit advice on how to…
The Myth of Genius: Why Being a “Genius” Isn’t the Point
When we think of the ideas that changed the world, it is inventor that comes to mind. It was Darwin, Einstein, Marx, Newton, etc., that changed the course of history…
On Learning to Judge Other Minds
Empathy, or putting yourself in someone’s shoes, is usually described as a good attribute to have or rule to follow, and despite reasonable criticisms, it really can be. But empathizing…
The Feeling of Intention of Our Guardians
Some things seem to have an intention. They move according to what is best for themselves and with purpose. They seem to have a mind. And some things don’t; they…