JamBlog

James Baugh's personal rants and raves

Philosophy

Thoughts on the Emergence of “Wokeness” and Cancel Culture

Milk consists of a collidal suspension of fat droplets within water (plus proteins and the sugar lactose). Butter is formed by churning milk in such a way that these small droplets coalesce allowing the fat and water to seperate. In past our social circles were geographically limited. There was our …

James

3 years ago

A New Poem: “Hubris Dismantled”

HUBRIS DISMANTLED Late as it is in the course of my life,as my hopes and despairs have become attenuatedto a background murmur of constant noise,and as the cold vacuous realizationof existence’s abject indifference to any condition of my life,becomes inescapably obvious to me,I reach the realization…

James

3 years ago

An Atheist’s Perspective on the Roles of Religion [1st (pre)Draft]

One trap atheists fall into is their (our) disdain of religion to the point of ignoring those essential roles it fulfills in society. The growing epidemic of nihilism we are now experiencing was predicted by Nietzsche as the inevitable result of the destruction of religion. I've been thinking of how…

James

3 years ago

The Problem with Understanding QM

The problem with understanding quantum mechanics is that there is a substantial shift in the scope of the semantics. Classically we think of a particle as an object with an objective state and thus speak of that state without needing to refer to the empirical act of verifying that state. The world i…

James

4 years ago

The problem with socialism [Draft]

The prisoner's dilemma is a thought experiment of game theory wherein two individuals may choose to either "defect" or "cooperate". If both cooperate they achieve a small gain. If both defect they each lose a significant amount. If one defects while the other cooperates then the defector gains a …

James

4 years ago

Manifesto

I seek to improve my knowledge of what is right and what that means. I seek to improve my power to effect what I then discover regarding this. I acknowledge that every other willful agent (person) is following their own path along those lines. Therefore it is my duty to facilitate others in navigati…

James

Emergent Ethics 4

Taking my premise and applying it to human society, the quintessential question becomes how do we manage to act in the presence of potentially conflicting value systems. Let us consider specifically how one individual may incorporate into their analysis of value, the value systems of his neighbors. …

James

4 years ago

Emergent Ethics 3

So, where to from here? I'm asking that question in the context of my thesis that all definitions of ethics, morality, and value cannot transcend the fundamental argument that all references to value cannot supersede the presumption of the existence and reference to the holder of that value. Values …

James

4 years ago

Emergent Ethics, Round 2.

I was watching Dr. Jordan Peterson debating with Matt Dilahunty on YouTube and I kept getting fired up as they danced around an important point. Dr. Peterson was validly critiquing a flaw in Matt's premises but Peterson's motivation was to continue to critique atheistic ethical systems as either "co…

James

4 years ago

Emergent Ethics 1

Introduction This is a subject back to which I keep coming every time I see a critical comment on the ability to develop a system of moral virtues without a foundation in some religious dogma or tradition. As a non-theist I take umbrage at this criticism although I do not discount the utility of sta…

James

5 years ago