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Paul Grobstein's picture

Cezanne and Beyond ... and Back Again: Beyond Method/Interpretation in Art/Science

An interesting juxtaposition of a visit to Cezanne and Beyond at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and a course conversation about "Against Method' in science and "Against Interpretation" in art.  Some thoughts about the latter from an on-line forum ...

kdilliplan's picture

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

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Laura Cyckowski's picture

Brain Injury and Mental Health

Brain Injury and
Mental Health

 

Mental Health and the Brain Working Group
March 30th, 2009


Image from the Feingold Gallery

 

EMR's picture

Emergence and The Blind Watchmaker

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Rachel Townsend's picture

Thought Capabilities of Homo Sapiens And Other Animal Species

Daniel Dennett's book Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life discusses, in great detail, the ramifications of Darwin's theory of evolution on human life and meaning.  While looking over portions of the book again, I found myself wondering more about some of Dennett's ideas and other species of animals.  On page 369, Dennett writes: "The invasion of human brains by culture, in the form of memes, has created human minds, which alone among animals minds can conceive of things distant and future, and formulate alternative goals." (1)  What interests me here is his complete dismissal of other animals as thinking or having culture.  While Dennett certainly makes great, strong points about human culture, even if I do not necessarily agree with him, he jumps stra
Rachel Townsend's picture

On Homosexuality

In reading Darwin's On the Origin of Species and discussing the book in class, I have found myself thinking a lot about the evolutionary significance of homosexuality.  I have been struggling not with the existence of homosexuality but instead with its' long history and continuation within our species, for if evolutionary theory is to be accepted, homosexuality, which is not a selective reproductive trait, should not continue to appear in the species.  According to Darwin's theory of evolution, the appearance of homosexuality is not surprising because the basic principle of the theory is based on the randomness of mutation within a species.  Given this, the existence of homosexuality is not surprising at all but, as mentioned before, the fact that it has continued within the population
hope's picture

Zen Meditation

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aybala50's picture

The Restriction's Placed On Us Because of a "Search For Meaning"

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