Tuesday, August 23, 2016

ontologies

unresponsive parents and afterwards the ontology 'I don't exist'
the inertia of the damaged object -- clinging to this ontology
episodic insight vs. real personal transformation
then: working through

the neutral citizen is in fact the bearer of a coded identity
an implicit ontology -- the inertia of existing power structures
token inclusion vs. real inclusion in power structures
then: societal change

oppression by virtue of membership in a social group
then: integration, inclusion
but: are we erasing what bothered other people?
and: where to be oneself and where to belong
thus: divisions in the ontology of the self

let us not look for people who are like us
let us look for people who share our values
identity politics vs. value coalitions
a demographics ontology; a voluntarist ontology

the self -- constructed by opposition to the other
the self -- reinforcing wounded attachments
the self -- constructed by dramatizing its pain
this is the ontology of the victim

humanism -- the universal human ontology
posthumanism -- deprioritizing shared characteristics
seeing who we are vs. choosing who we are
facticity vs. projected ontologies

Foucault: the aesthetics of the self
The self as a practice of austerity


Friday, August 12, 2016

projects august 2016





some current projects

          teaching this year in the philosophy department at PSU

atheism
cyberethics
the philosophy of education
science and pseudoscience
humane computation

untitled project

theory of the red herring

thoughts for the day:

"It is essential that public opinion should be enlightened. If the nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."  -- G. Washington

"Education is the most important subject which we as a people can be engaged in." -- A. Lincoln