Mah: 97 books

The walk opens with some thoughts on how to define words in this postmodern age. These thoughts follow the structure of the category-based nested form. Normal context brings actuality out of possibility.Definition is the relational normal context. The word itself is the actuality. Meaning, presence...

An Archaeology of the Fall addresses this question: Why is our current Lebenswelt not the same as “the Lebenswelt that we evolved in”. A hypothesis is presented in dramatic form. So are its fantastic implications.A discontinuity occurred in recent prehistory. The first singularity altered the...

This work, and other reviews in this series, demonstrate the potential of the category-based nested form for sympathetic (as opposed to critical) analysis. Elements in Proudfoot’s arguments are associated to nested forms. Alternate storylines are proposed. Friedrich Schleiermacher, in the early...

Why a series of primers?These primers provide in depth coverage of the nested form constructs in the book: How to Define the Word “Religion”.Primers 1 and 2 developed the category-based nested forms discussed in “the meaning underlying the word ‘religion’”.The next several primer address...

David McNeill spent years in the Departments of Psychology and Linguistics, exploring the nature of human speech and gesture. Gesture coincides with speech. The gestures are holistic and imagistic. Speech is detailed and propositional. Clearly, these two real elements are contiguous in contemporary...

Boris Hennig's essay, "Substance, Reality and Distinctness", appears in Prolegomena (volume 7(1), pages 5-20). His focus is on Rene Descartes. Descartes (1596-1650) stands at the dawn of the Age of Ideas. The Age of Ideas encompasses the period from the mechanical philosophers to the time...

This work comments an essay titled, “How to Tell Whether Christians and Muslims Worship the Same God”. The authors are Tomas Bogardus and Mallorie Urban. The article appears in the Spring 2017 edition of the Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers (34:176-200). This...

After Thomas Sebeok dies, John Deely assumes the mantle as the premier semiotician in America. After a few short years, John Deely dies. Now, there is no independent thinker to don the robe. In this lacunae, we remember. Paul Cobley offers a wonderful contribution. His article first appears online...

This work comments an essay titled, “Is a Thomistic Theory of Intentionality Consistent with Physicalism?” The original author is James D. Madden. The article appears in the Winter 2017 edition of the American Catholic Quarterly (91:1-28). Madden’s essay covers a lot of interesting territory....

Why is the current story of human evolution so dissatisfying? The answer is simple. It is not adequate. To date, modern biological theories are built on the idea that adaptation responds to material advantage or causation, rather than the potential of an actuality independent of the species. Consequently,...

In 1980, Jeremy Cohen publishes an essay in the July-October issue of the Harvard Theological Review (vol 73(3/4) pp. 495-520). The full title is "Original Sin as the Evil Inclination - A Polemicist's Appreciation of Human Nature". In 1278, the Dominicans are changing Western civilization...

In 1994, Luca Cavalli-Sforza publishes The History and Geography of Human Genes, using phenotypic markers such as blood antigens. Now, decades later, the techniques for sequencing the human genome have dramatically improved. So has mathematical modeling. David Reich, geneticist at Harvard Medical...

In Gnostic America: A Reading of Contemporary American Culture and Religion according to Christianity’s Oldest Heresy (2014), a Lutheran pastor, Peter Burfeind, sounds the alarm. The American culture has fallen under the influence of a resurgent, modern Gnosticism.How could an ancient heresy re-appear...

Why a series of primers?These primers provide in depth coverage of the nested form constructs in the book: How to Define the Word “Religion”.Primers 1 and 2 developed the category-based nested forms discussed in “the meaning underlying the word ‘religion’”.The next several primer address...