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William Payne

@wpayne Active 3 days, 10 hours ago
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  • Profile picture of William Payne

    William Payne wrote a new post, Cancel Culture, on the site W. Russ Payne 3 days, 15 hours ago

    So cancel culture is taking a thrashing, and in so far as it means hastily judging people and giving up on trying to understand them, I’m on board. But I have a worry here since cancel culture tends to be […]

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    William Payne wrote a new post, Another Moral Relativism Post (and DCT for good measure), on the site W. Russ Payne 1 week, 4 days ago

    Cultural norms often go far beyond morality. Morality has nothing to say, for instance, about whether men should grow beards or women should wear veils or makeup. So what is accepted or disapproved of in a […]

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    William Payne wrote a new post, Righteousness, on the site W. Russ Payne 2 weeks, 4 days ago

    I’ll have to research this one, but I’m pretty sure Nietzsche would count righteousness, the sense that bad must absolutely be punished. as a sublimated impulse to cruelty, a diseased manifestation of the will to […]

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    William Payne wrote a new post, Processing some Grief, on the site W. Russ Payne 2 weeks, 4 days ago

    I’m not one to wish suffering on others, but what I wish for Trump’s followers is probably going to involve some of that and I’d acknowledge that with a good deal of sorrow. It’s not that I think anyone […]

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    William Payne wrote a new post, Academic Freedom, on the site W. Russ Payne 1 month, 3 weeks ago

    Thoughtful and lovely essay here:

    Self-Censorship in the Academy. Two cheers for inclusivity | by Aaron Kunin | Dec, 2020 | Arc Digital

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    William Payne wrote a new post, Learning from the Navajo, on the site W. Russ Payne 1 month, 4 weeks ago

    Through 3rd and most of 4th grade, I lived in Ganado, in the Navajo nation. I don’t recall a paved road in town. Horses and dogs roamed free. So did children. My friends and playmates were all Navajo save for one […]

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    William Payne wrote a new post, Critical Thinking Note 27: Trust and Identity, on the site W. Russ Payne 2 months ago

    We are living through a period of deep mistrust. This is most obvious at the level of national politics where tens of millions of Americans distrust the results of our recent presidential election. But this […]

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    William Payne wrote a new post, Critical Thinking Note 26: Subjectivity and Objectivity, on the site W. Russ Payne 2 months, 4 weeks ago

    In everyday language we often treat “subjective” and “biased” as synonyms and likewise “objective” and “unbiased”. But we don’t really need two different words to say the same thing, and this way of speaking […]

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    William Payne wrote a new post, Some Aphorisms from discussion of Thomas Chatterton Williams "A Game of Chance", on the site W. Russ Payne 4 months ago

    The futility of offending the offenders: We must speak out on behalf of the oppressed. Silence amounts to consent to their oppression. But, then there is the question of how to speak out when you see people […]

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    William Payne wrote a new post, Critical Thinking Note 25: Knowledge and Understanding, on the site W. Russ Payne 4 months ago

    Knowledge and understanding both require some critical thinking skill. But they aren’t the same thing and cultivating some understanding of how they differ is a worthy critical thinking exercise in itself. […]

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    William Payne wrote a new post, Kendi sets the Policy Agenda, on the site W. Russ Payne 5 months ago

    Important Essay here: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/09/the-end-of-denial/614194/. Kendi’s policy recommendations are made clear at the end.

    “The abolition of slavery seemed as impossible […]

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    William Payne wrote a new post, Bad Apples, on the site W. Russ Payne 7 months, 3 weeks ago

    Barr Says He Sees no Systemic Racism in Policinghttps://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/07/us/politics/justice-department-barr-racism-police.html?searchResultPosition=1

    Speaking as an avid fruit preserver, I wish […]

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    William Payne wrote a new post, Not OK, on the site W. Russ Payne 8 months ago

    Discussion post in PHIL&101 in response to student asking, “If there are moral truths, should everyone believe them?”

    There is a sense in which everyone should believe and abide by truths. The goal of rational […]

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    William Payne wrote a new post, Reining in Subjectivity run amuck, on the site W. Russ Payne 8 months, 3 weeks ago

    Personal preferences would be a good examples of things that are purely subjective. There is no fact of the matter to discover about whether chocolate tastes better than vanilla. And matters of personal […]

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    William Payne wrote a new post, Critical Thinking Note 24: Critical Thinking Basics, on the site W. Russ Payne 11 months, 3 weeks ago

    Twenty four notes into this series, it has been a while since we’ve laid out the basics. So, time for another pass. Critical Thinking is basically about getting at truths and avoiding falsehoods as best we can. […]

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    William Payne wrote a new post, Bullshit Nation, on the site W. Russ Payne 1 year ago

    This is bullshit. In his seminal analysis of the concept, philosopher Harry Frankfurt identifies lack of regard for the truth as the essential core of bullshit. Our country today is what it looks like when […]

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    William Payne wrote a new post, Critical Thinking Note 23: An Exercise for Your Moral Imagination, on the site W. Russ Payne 1 year, 3 months ago

    Imagine your love is forbidden. Imagine that the kinds of relationships that animate your affection, bring meaning to your life and inspire your devotion are deemed taboo, intolerable, unacceptable to polite […]

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    William Payne wrote a new post, Critical Thinking Note 22: You have a right to your opinion, on the site W. Russ Payne 1 year, 4 months ago

    Of course, you have a right to your opinion. It’s not clear what it might mean to assert this as a right, since no one could possibly force a person to give up an opinion they are attached to. But when people […]

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    William Payne wrote a new post, Morality, again, on the site W. Russ Payne 1 year, 5 months ago

    Some things are up to us, other aren’t. Some things we get to decide. Some things we have to figure out. Where does morality fit in these categories? We do get to decide what standards we will uphold and hold […]

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    William Payne wrote a new post, Climate vs. Nihilism slides, on the site W. Russ Payne 1 year, 9 months ago

    Click below for the more-or-less self-explanatory slides for my 2019 Earth week talk at BC.

    Climate-vs-NihilismDownload

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