Tag Archives: religion

Office Late At Night With William James

Posted on November 17, 2022 by zjb

Thoughts about the night are strung along the Principles of Psychology. James is concerned here, and also in the Varieties of Religious Experience, with stimuli, sensation, perception, and the imagination. Thoughts about night in the PP make reference to the … Continue reading →

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(SCOTUS) Guns, Abortion, Religion (Subverting the Public Sphere)

Posted on July 17, 2022 by zjb

Our moment of madness in the United States of America lies in the sudden massive churn against liberal-social order after a long pre-meditated buildup going back decades. Of a whole piece are the more recent Trump attempted-coup on January 6 … Continue reading →

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(Mother & Martyr) Mistress Rachel (Mainz Anonymous)

Posted on March 28, 2022 by zjb

There was a distinguished young woman there named Mistress Rachel, daughter of Isaac, son of Asher, who said to her friend: “Four children have I. Have no mercy on them either, lest those uncircumcised ones come and seize them alive … Continue reading →

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(Technology) Slaves & Automatic Machine Gods (Aristotle)

Posted on February 16, 2022 by zjb

The question of technology (techne) runs across the entire Aristotelean corpus. Its most famous instantiation is in the Nicomachean Ethics. It’s there also in the Physics and Metaphysics. It pops up in the Politics in relation to the institution of … Continue reading →

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(William James) Religion Is….

Posted on November 3, 2021 by zjb

I’ve been struggling with the caricature according to which the definition of religion suggested by James is “Protestant.” This is to claim that for James, religion is a private matter, The problem is this. On the one hand, the caricature … Continue reading →

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(Animism) Primitive Jewish Culture (E.B. Tylor)

Posted on October 7, 2021 by zjb

Jewish culture and Judaism spot E.B. Tylor’s monumental Primitive Culture. There is no special theory of Jewish culture or Judaism in Primitive Culture. Judaism is nothing special, just one more dataset in the ethnographic record. Primitive Judaism is folklore Primitive … Continue reading →

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Animism, Affect, Spiritual Beings (E.B. Tylor)

Posted on October 4, 2021 by zjb

In late mid-career, I finally got around to E.B. Tylor’s Primitive Culture and more of these musty nineteenth century contributions to the science of Religion. I am now including in my graduate seminar on Theories and Methods Max Müller’s Lectures … Continue reading →

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Religion = Spiritual Beings

Posted on September 1, 2021 by zjb

Teaching Theories and Methods again, the classics.. “Belief” is not quite the right word and not what he actually meant. I’ve lost all patience with beating around the bush as to what people mean by “religion” and “religious.” In social-historical-political … Continue reading →

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The State of Israel Does Not Exist (Judaism)

Posted on May 5, 2021 by zjb

If a state is defined as a sovereign territorial body, then, by the reckoning here by Zvi Bar’el in Haaretz, the State of Israel does not exist. Instead of being a state in which the rule of law applies throughout … Continue reading →

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The New New Jewish Left (Samuel Hayim Brody Reads Atalia Omer)

Posted on November 22, 2020 by zjb

For a uniquely keen analysis of the new new (anti-Zionist) Jewish left, you can find here Samuel Hayim Brody’s sympathetic-critical read of Atalia Omer’s Days of Awe: Reimagining Jewishness in Solidarity with Palestinians. Tagging the rhetorical difference between “Judaism” and … Continue reading →

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