ICYMI (Philosophy) Daily Digest report

Qui se dévoue pour donner les résultats ?

I realized recently that there was one core concept video on book 3 of Cicero's On The Ends I hadn't converted into a Sadler's Lectures podcast episode. It discusses the Stoic conception of how wisdom relates to other arts. Here it is in podcast form!

https://soundcloud.com/gregorybsadler/cicero-on-the-ends-book-3-wisdom-and-the-other-arts

A picture my wife Andi took 14 years ago, when I was playing my banjo by the fire pit one night

An #IACESR post that had to wait until I caught my train:

How do people expect believers respond to answered and unanswered #prayer?

Ze (Kevin) Hong found that #Muslims in his research assistants' social network expected *more* prayer and #faith regardless of whether believers' prayers were answered ("success[ful]").

Notably, participants expected bigger increases in belief after answered than unanswered prayers.

Follow Kevin on ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ze-Hong

#religion #xPhi #theism

If, like me, you are alarmed by French election results and the difficulty of seeing a clear path to a Democratic Presidency in 2024, I’m dropping this post just to say that you are not alone. Moreover, I think it is rational to be scared or anxious. But that doesn’t mean we stop fighting. We fight on anyway! I am putting most of my time, money, and effort into state and local progressive candidates. I will also vote for whoever the Dem nominee is and urge others to do same.

I don’t know how best to increase the odds of a Democratic Presidential win in November. But here is David Remnick’s view, which is worth reading. Remnick has not been among those who have previously said Biden shouldn’t run, and he conducted one of Biden’s best recent interviews. https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-reckoning-of-joe-biden

Better to retire gracefully when there's time to accommodate it gracefully than to press on in a blind fit of ego into times that could risk huge crises at unpredictable times.

RBG had stellar record, but many of us are still bitter she didn't take the chance to get out when it made sense. It's a serious contributing factor to why we have the awful court we have now.

The claim that the Democrats are winning and should not yield that position of strength is bogus. They were already ailing going into the debate and must not continue to be but have done nothing to fix it. That they cannot see this is as worrisome as anything.

Biden's inaction on Gaza is a key factor. This is a chance to repair the damage he has done on that issue as well as the damage he now risks doing on the age issue. Both are places where voter apathy will fester and both are due to choices he's made.

En vrai, je suis perdu.

J'ai l'impression que, dans ma socialisation politique d'enfance, la question "mais qu'est-ce que tu aurais fait pendant la guerre ?" était omniprésente. Je me suis souvent dit que ma génération était la dernière à se politiser avec ce référentiel là, de la guerre et de la résistance. Mais l'hypothèse générationnelle est bien désavouée par les résultats de l'élection par tranches d'âges.

Book Challenge:  20 Bücher, die dich geprägt haben. Ein Buch pro Tag, 20 Tage lang. #20books #20books20days #20tage20bucher #booksthatinfluencedyou 9/20

Rimbaud's poetry spoke to my inner temperament, which doesn't often show on the outside, rather in what I write. Rimbaud was also, like Hölderlin, an example of how a person doesn't necessarily have to be a poet or writer professionally or for their whole life. There is so much more than art! After all, I didn't become an arms dealer.

#20books #20books20days #20tage20bucher #booksthatinfluencedyou

Last week of work before my annual leave. I am going to reward myself by running a game of #TroikaRPG at the #boardgames night at #Sickhouse in #Enschede . Drop by, if you are around and like to roll dice and tell stories.

Sotomayor’s dissent in #Trump immunity case is blistering throughout. Sometimes, the drier passages are the most withering. E.g, “It seems history matters to this Court only when it is convenient. See, e.g., New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn., Inc. v. Bruen, 597 U. S. 1 (2022); Dobbs, 597 U. S. 215.” 1/ #LawFedi

More Sotomayor: “Indeed, Trump’s own lawyers during his second impeachment trial assured Senators that declining to impeach Trump for his conduct related to January 6 would not leave him ‘in any way above the law.’ … Now that Trump is facing criminal charges for those acts, though, the tune has changed. Being treated ‘like any other citizen’ no longer seems so appealing.” 2/

Sotomayor, joined by Kagan and Jackson: “In sum, the majority today endorses an expansive vision of Presidential immunity that was never recognized by the Founders, any sitting President, the Executive Branch, or even President Trump’s lawyers, until now. Settled understandings of the Constitution are of little use to the majority in this case, and so it ignores them.” 3/

Sotomayor: “The relationship between the President and the people he serves has shifted irrevocably. In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law. … With fear for our democracy, I dissent.” 13/13 #LawFedi