(no subject)

[degringolade]

Spent Labor Day kinda of doing nothing of particular importance. Not ashamed. Not proud  Just the way it is.

Much back and forth with M. about evolution.  Clarence Darrow and Williams Jennings Bryant would have moderately annoyed by the conversation, it probably wasn't at their level of excellence.  But it got me thinking about Science and Language and Society and other such bothers.

Bouncing around a lot intellectually lately.  Trying to tie together a lot of loose ends that were ignored due to expedience up until now.  A lot of time, when you are trying to fit into an overpopulated industrial society cobbled together for the sake of an overweening oligarchy, it seems like the thing to do.  Getting used to the idea of being in thrall and needing to fit in, I can now take the time to re-examine those awkward bits that I put down years ago for the joys of a regular paycheck. 

I will probably need to put together a syllabus.  Might even need to set up a course description one of these days.  I am too old to do anything extemporaneously, need a game plan and a goal.  Yes I know, that points to an weakness on my part, but weakness is pretty common in my life, so I have to make provisions.

I am thinking that I need to think a little bit and cobble together some kind of mental model for how language and consciousness interact.  That seems to me to be kind of a grey area.  Gonna sit down and read a couple of 19th century Germans to start.  Plowing through Gottlob Frege currently (On Sense and Reference) to see how that rolls.  The trouble is, with philosophers, you need to set up an internal lexicon to make certain that the words they use and the words you are used to are the same meaning.