THE “KARL JASPERS FORUM” UPDATE 24--REVIEW OF DAWKINS’ BOOKS BEGINS (Local Library: Nice guy “0” Dawkins “4”, Jaspers applied to personality)

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Notation on Herbert’s 5 June, 2006 postings--Though occupying a major position within the Constructivist Foundation, Herbert has not been able to hoist a clichéd “Jaspers forum” within that community’s Journal. So, Herbert is suggesting developing “constructivism” within his Forum—which by the way exploits the theistic Jaspers by atheistic means. Herbert has a rationale for this offer: there is more “incentive” in his blog. The incentive is not that Herbert has a blog, the incentive is that the blog has a misnomered masthead; it gets meaning from the improper association with a notable personage. Therefore anyone set on undermining the influence of Jaspers and theistic thinking can do so through Herbert’s blog and by employing the tactic of avoiding reference to Jaspers’ works.

Herbert and Richard’s defaults--Remember, Herbert has given assurance that Jaspers’ name would not be in the title of his Forum if Jaspers were not an “evolutionist” in the sense that the mind has “evolved”, that theistic thinking is merely what the mind conjures (epiphenomenal rather than periechontological). Until Herbert can be shown to be in error the name will continue to be popular enough to be offered as the “incentive”. However, constructivists like Herbert do not confess errors, and can always fallback on a buzzword; i.e., another’s name. Similarly, to me at this point, Richard Dawkins escapes primary responsibility for possible errors through the use of the names like Darwin and W. D. Hamilton (and of course “evolutionary” this and that. like “evolutionary time”). Both Herbert and Richard could fall way back on Anaximander, and Moses for that matter--but the inspired wisdom is inconvenient for self-image enhancement. If one removed the mass-hypnotic force of popularity, removed the name of Darwin and Jaspers from their writings it would be like removing odor eaters (smilingly/nudgingly said).

Emergency alert and announcement--I went to the local library to see if someone might have donated one of Richard Dawkins’ books. I was disappointed to find that my tax-money had already paid for promoting “evolutionism”. The disappointment was not due to any aversion to individual-free-speech rights. A much earlier check revealed that the library had none of Jaspers’ works. There were four books by Dawkins. So, already on a local level, Jaspers was not allowed to compete at tax payers’ expense, I mean, only a “nice” guy was allowed a handicap of four unites and Jaspers none. So, I checked out disingenuously The Selfish Gene, New Edition, and The Ancestor’s Tale. The latter has a Jacket designed, obviously with Richard’s potent approval. It shows a split DNA spiral in the shape of an oval with some DNA unites penetrated by the spirochaete-like tale of the K in the Kin of the name of DawKins. “Martha Kennedy” was listed as the artist of this bit of Freudianism.

Dawkins as a personality for evaluation—So, without further note, please see the Web Page “KARL JASPERS APPLIED TO RICHARD DAWKINS”. The continuation of that Web Page will soon have the book reviews, but will probably first include pertinent matters on approaches, and a short analysis of his personality from a Jaspers’ perspective.