Up@dawn
reflections caught at daybreak, in a WJ-at-Chocorua ("doors opening outward") state of mind… https://philoliver.substack.com (Up@dawn@Substack)… @osopher@c.im (Mastodon)… @osopher on Threads & IG
Up@dawn 2.0
Up@dawn was launched in April 2009. Its mirror & successor as of June 2013 is Up@dawn 2.0: http://jposopher.blogspot.com/
The new site is a successor in several senses. It will bear whatever initial revisions it may occur to me to make in my dawn posts. The old site will thus stand as an uncorrected, unvarnished record of dawn's earliest light, as I've reflected it, and of my earliest daily errors. "Our errors are surely not such awfully solemn things," as James said in "Will to Believe."
This site, as of May 2017, will also serve as an archival repository of posts, tweets, re-tweets, and whatever other dispatches can be easily shunted here.
So, the two sites may also stand together as a record of their fallible author's occasional self-correction and growth. "If I get up every day with the optimism that I have the capacity for growth, that's success for me." (Paula Scher)
Both sites will remain dedicated to the Thoreauvian proposition that morning "is the awakening hour. Then there is least somnolence in us; and for an hour, at least, some part of us awakes which slumbers all the rest of the day and night.”
And as for versions 3.0 and beyond? My intent is that they will one day pop up between hard covers.
Meanwhile, may we all have a good day!
Up@dawn 2.0-
Recent Posts
Who’s up
I'm an early-rising philosophy prof at a large state university in Tennessee, with interests in American philosophy (especially William James and John Dewey), in humanism/naturalism/atheism, in science and exploration, in walking & cycling & baseball, in literature, in pop culture, in the pursuit of happiness, and in the perpetual dawn of day.-
- Delight Springs (my DAY blog)
Morning air!
...let me have a draught of undiluted morning air. Morning air! If men will not drink of this at the fountainhead of the day, why, then, we must even bottle up some and sell it in the shops, for the benefit of those who have lost their subscription ticket to morning time in this world. -ThoreauWhy write?
In any weather, at any hour of the day or night, I have been anxious to improve the nick of time, and notch it on my stick too; to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and future, which is precisely the present moment; to toe that line. -HDTMorning
Why do we bother with the rest of the day, the swale of the afternoon, the sudden dip into evening, then night with his notorious perfumes, his many-pointed stars? This is the best— throwing off the light covers, feet on the cold floor, and buzzing around the house on espresso— maybe a splash of water on the face, a palmful of vitamins— but mostly buzzing around the house on espresso, dictionary and atlas open on the rug, the typewriter waiting for the key of the head, a cello on the radio, and, if necessary, the windows— trees fifty, a hundred years old out there, heavy clouds on the way and the lawn steaming like a horse in the early morning. -Billy CollinsStrong coffee, whanging sun, skimming gulls
How at the mercy of bodily happenings our spirit is. A cup of strong coffee at the proper moment will entirely overturn for the time a man's view of life. Our moods and resolutions are more determined by the condition of our circulation than by our logical grounds. *** Remember when old December's darkness is everywhere about you, that the world is really in every minutest point as full of life as in the most joyous morning you ever lived through; that the sun is whanging down, and the waves dancing, and the gulls skimming down at the mouth of the Amazon, for instance, as freshly as in the first morning of creation; and the hour is just as fit as any hour that ever was for a new gospel of cheer to be preached. I am sure that one can, by merely thinking of these matters of fact, limit the power of one's evil moods over one's way of looking at the cosmos. -William JamesArchives
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Blogroll
- Arts & Letters Daily Fodder aggregated by the Chronicle of Higher Education.
- Ask Philosophers Philosophers with answers – what a concept!
- Bloggingheads Robert Wright’s (& friends’) blog
- Butterflies and Wheels Philosophers’ Magazine’s Ophelia Benson runs this wonderful, biting, funny “Notes & Comments” blog.
- Center for American Progress Progressive ideas…
- Dale McGowan's "meming of life" blog A free-thinking approach to parenting and to life.
- Dear Fonzie Jennifer Hecht’s poetry blog
- Delight Springs My “day” blog.
- Edge.org On the edge between science and … everything else.
- Evolution Is True (Why) Jerry Coyne’s site
- Evolutionblog An evolution blog. (What else?)
- Jesus & Mo Funniest philosophical/humanist comic strip going.
- Mister Jimmy A friend’s “live journal”
- MY DAY BLOG Delight Springs
- On This Day What happened on this date in history, from the NYTimes archives.
- Philosophy Bites podcast interviews with philosophers
- Rabbi Rami A smart, funny, philosophically astute (nominal?) Rabbi’s blog.
- Rationally Speaking CUNY Prof’s blog “devoted to tracking down prejudices in the hiding places where priests, schools, governments, and institutions had gathered and protected them.”
- Richard Dawkins evolve!
- Richard Powers An authorized website devoted to the National Book Award-winning novelist.
- Skeptologists A group blog of skeptics, not to be confused with scientologists…
- Stephen Law A very good philosophy blog, by one of the best philosophers of childhood & early education.
- Talking Philosophy The Philosophers Magazine blog
- TED Talks “Ideas worth spreading”
- The Stone The New York Times philosophy blog
- UP@NIGHT Mitchell Aboulafia’s very good blog, and my alter-inspiration.
- Virtual Philosopher Nigel Warburton’s blog
- What Could Happen: A Baleful Influence on American English as a Whole Julie Powell’s (of “Julie and Julia” fame) blog
- Why Evolution Is True
- William James's "Springs of Delight": The Return to Life My favorite book on James, life, the universe, and everything.
- WordPress.com
- WordPress.org
- World Question Center Edge.org’s annual Q-&-A with “3d Culture” contributors
- Writer's Almanac Garrison Keillor’s daily dose of literature, history, and poetry.
books
- "36 Arguments for the Existence of God: a work of fiction" Cass Seltzer’s (Rebecca Goldstein’s) appendix
- American Philosophy: An Encyclopedia Ed. by Talisse, Lachs
- Breakfast With Socrates “An Extraordinary Philosophical Journey Through Your Ordinary Day”
- Doubt: A History Jennifer Michael Hecht’s romp through the history of doubt, skepticism, atheism, humanism, naturalism…
- Gutenberg Project etexts in the public domain
- In Love With Life
- Last Days of Socrates Usefully annotated and hyperlinked edition of Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, and Phaedo.
- Pale Blue Dot: a vision of the human future in space Carl Sagan’s spiritual vision of our future. He likes William James’s definition of religion, ” a feeling of being at home in the universe.” But “if we mean the real universe, then we have no true religion yet.”
- Passion for Wisdom
- Pragmatism: a new name for an old way of thinking
- Principles of Psychology (1890) Full text of William James’s classic introduction to the young field he helped to pioneer.
- Simon Critchley's "Book of Dead Philosophers" Lots more fun than it sounds…
- Six Questions of Socrates: A modern-day journey of discovery through world philosophy Chris Phillips goes global in his search for Socrates.
- Socrates Cafe: A Fresh Taste of Philosophy Chris Phillips’ first book “in search of Socrates” in the contemporary world.
- The Demon-haunted World: science as a candle in the dark Carl Sagan
- The Greatest Show on Earth The evidence for evolution, masterfully assembled by the former Oxford “Professor for the Public Understanding of Science.”
- The Really Hard Problem: meaning in a material world Owen Flanagan says the problem of meaning is soluble without fantasy, and we can be happy. “I recommend joyful optimistic realism. Life can be precious and funny.”
- The Varieties of Religious Experience WJ’s Gifford Lectures
- The Varieties of Scientific Experience Carl Sagan’s Gifford Lectures
- Trials of the Monkey: an accidental memoir Darwin’s descendant (great-great grandson) Matthew Chapman’s memoir, couched in a funny and ultimately sympathetic road trip to Dayton TN for the the Scopes Trial reenactment
- Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder “Spirituality” from atheist Richard Dawkins
- William James's "Springs of Delight" Limited digitized version of a pretty good book…
- William James: in the maelstrom of American Modernism Robert Richardson’s bio of WJ
environment
- 350.org Bill McKibben’s global activist group
- Climate Debate Daily Looking at all sides of the climate change debate.
- Dot Earth Andrew Revkin’s climate blog
- Eaarth “making a life on a tough new planet” – Bill McKibben
- Environmental Ethics an anthology edited by philosopher Andrew Light
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- Indigenous People's Literature Weblog “Dedicated to all peoples of the World”
- IPCC Intergovernmental panel on climate change
- Native American Wisdom Quotes reclaiming the indigenous wisdom of native America
- Native Environmentalism Native Americans and the Environment
- Native Pragmatism “rethinking the roots of American philosophy” – Scott Pratt
- Orion Magazine “America’s finest environmental magazine”
- RealClimate A commentary site on climate science by working, blogging climate scientists.
- The Daily Climate A publication of environmental health sciences.
- The Primal Roots of American Philosophy “Pragmatism, phenomenology, and Native American Thought” – Bruce Wilshire
Philosophy Resources
- Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Philosophical Dictionary A useful dictionary of philosophers and ideas, with links to other articles and additional info.
- Pop Culture and Philosophy Open Court’s growing series (including “Jimmy Buffett & Philosophy”)
- Pop Culture and Philosophy 2 Blackwell Publishing Co.’s pop culture series
- Squashed philosophers Short, clever distillations of the famous philosophers, not too misleading…
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- The 'ism book All about ‘isms, from absolutism to pragmatism to stoicism to Zoroastrianism.
- The Skeptic's Dictionary Dozens of topics in logic, perception, science, and philosophy…
- Writing a Philosophy Paper: guidelines Helpful tips on writing philosophy.
- Writing Center, MTSU
- Writing Philosophy Philosophy Pages’ Guide to Studying and Writing Philosophy, with useful info on electronic resources.
Video
- "Open Your Eyes" “We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones…” Richard Dawkins, UNWEAVING THE RAINBOW
- American Philosopher a film by Phillip McReynolds
- Cosmopolitanism Kwame Anthony Appiah, in “The Examined Life,” on the ethical philosophy of global/cosmic citizenship.
- Cosmos Carl Sagan’s documentary history of science and human exploration. Visionary, inspiring, fresh.
- Darwin- bbc
- Evolution-pbs
- Football (soccer) philosophy Greece vs. Germany (Monty Python)
- Football vs. Baseball George Carlin
- Pale Blue Dot We are here. -Carl Sagan
- Philosophy TV A video website devoted to philosophical thinking
- Symphony of Science: Our Place in the Cosmos Sagan, Dawkins et al “sing” of cosmic curiosity and perspective
- TED Talks “Ideas Worth Spreading,” originally focused on Technology, Entertainment, & Design, now on just about everything.
- The Five-Minute Philosopher Videos from CUNY Professor Massimo Pigliucci
- The Problem of Evil Peter Singer on the problem of evil, or suffering
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