Academia Culture Education

Isolation & Availability

I am writing this for my students, having in mind how the changes in our educational arrangement have impacted them. Prolonged periods of isolation is difficult. This is especially true when we lose contact with what excites us, what inspires us, and what motivates us. Sometimes being around family members for long can feel isolating; sometimes being in a classroom can feel isolating; sometimes, I am sure, listening to an online lecture can feel isolating,…

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Culture Education metaphysics Philosophy

Untying Knots: Nietzsche’s Dance

I recommend reading Pam Weintraub’s article on Nietzsche and Dance. What is crucial about this perspective is that it views dancing not as doing, as much as undoing, unraveling, untying. Here is, to me, the most significant passage: … those who dance are not burdened by ressentiment, or need for revenge. They have the sensory discernment needed to resist pernicious applications of the ascetic ideal. In Twilight of the Idols (1889) and The Antichrist (1895), dance appears as a discipline for…

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critical psychology Culture Descriptive Psychology Discourse General Psychology

Conversations & Positions

We shouldn’t think about conversations only as exchanges of information. Nor should we think about our positions in conversations only as givers and receivers of information. Too much emphasis on information overshadows the fact that our position in conversations are also tied with power, rights, and duties. For example, in a father-son conversation, we could recognize the father’s duty to tell the truth, just as we could recognize the son’s trust as part of his…

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critical psychology history of psychology philosophical psychology philosophy of science Theoretical Psychology

Jeff Sugarman on Psychologism

In his Chapter, An Historical Turn in Theoretical & Philosophical Psychology, Jeff Sugarman (2019) begins by distinguishing three different approach to historiography (borrowing from Nikolas Rose). Among the three approaches, he introduces and adopts ‘critical history’. One of the aims of critical history is to explicate styles of reasoning that are operating in the background of scientific activities. Styles of reasoning (Alistair C. Crombie; Ian Hacking) provide conditions of possibility for research questions, methods, and…

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Culture Education General Psychology Popular Culture

3 Lessons in 3 Short Films

A few days ago, I sat down and recorded the following 3 videos. My original plan was to have an in-person activity with students at Cheong Kun Lun College (CKLC), in which we watch and discuss these short animations. But because of the current COVID-19 crisis, meeting in person wasn’t possible. Since I was already experimenting with YouTube, I decided to use the channel for the discussions of these short films, too. I am going…

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