I'm a thinker, not a fame seeker. I'm a progressive, or what is more, a radical humanist. I don't pay attention to titles, I pay attention to intellectual substance. And though I love theory, I recognize its abstract limits. Knowledge, as privilege, means social responsibility.
Without the semantics of reason, we cannot stop the tyranny of ideology. This is because we have no way of getting behind ideology without reason. Thus tyranny is simply replicated through the vagueness of ideology— it is justified by its form.
Much of my philosophy books I will soon get rid of. But I will not be getting rid of my psychology books. One is a waste of life, the other is a vital key to both thought and life.
The philosophy of science has served to undermine science. It seeks to produce, not a doubt consistent with the clarity and sanity of science, but an idiosyncratic doubt that gets people to distrust science through abstractions that don’t even make contact with science.
It is interesting to me that many people assume dementia “runs in the family,” when most dementia cases are actually sporadic rather than directly inherited. Family history can increase risk, but truly hereditary forms are relatively rare.
#Alzheimer, for example, is the most common cause of dementia, accounting for an estimated 60–80% of cases. Yet only about 5% of Alzheimer’s cases are caused by inherited genetic mutations, and these forms usually begin at a younger age.
Most cases develop from a combination of aging, vascular health, lifestyle and environmental exposures, including to pathogens.
We know that conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, obesity, and heart disease damage blood vessels and increase dementia risk because the brain depends heavily on healthy circulation. These conditions can disrupt the blood–brain barrier (BBB), increasing its permeability and allowing inflammatory molecules and other harmful substances to affect brain tissue.
Physical inactivity and poor sleep also play an important role. Regular exercise supports blood flow, reduces inflammation, and improves insulin sensitivity, while chronic sleep disruption is associated with increased accumulation of abnormal proteins linked to Alzheimer such as tau (NFTs) and amyloid (AB).
What receives less attention is the growing evidence that some infections may also contribute to dementia risk through several possible mechanisms.
Can be direct infection of the brain cells (seen in HIV, #Covid, herpesviruses and others) or by chronic immune activation and inflammation, which damage blood vessels and contribute to vascular impairment. There is also growing research linking reactivation of dormant viruses after an infection, and interactions between infections contributing to dementia in some individuals.
Overall, chronic systemic inflammation appears harmful to brain health. Repeated severe infections or persistent inflammatory states may contribute through vascular damage and prolonged immune activation.
There is still a great deal we do not understand about dementia and neurodegenerative diseases, which is one reason why truly effective treatments are still not available.
While psychopathy was positively related to both types of violent extremist intentions, those high in Machiavellianism and narcissism demonstrated particularly higher levels of defensive extremist intentions.
By contrast, those scoring high on religious fundamentalism and social dominance orientation demonstrated particularly higher levels of offensive extremist intentions.
This is based on a study of extremism in 58 countries.
https://t.co/zIKHKXokdc
🧵Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) 🧵
Ask any person who has been even suggested to have BPD; they will uniformly tell you that they have been told to try DBT (Dialectical Behavioural Therapy). Reflexively recommended. "Gold standard."
This is not science-supported.
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@Sean_McDowell I would be happy to oblige you with a written exchange on the very questions you asked Bart Ehrman on “Objective Morality.” If you have a strong case, this should be quite easy, since your view is that you know and have “Objective Morality.”
Where philosophy ends, content with its own jargon and enamored with its narrative, there reason lives on, not only for the sake of truth, but because it must be consistent with itself.
One thing about discoursing with philosophical irrationalists, is that they never see themselves as irrationalists, because they assume their philosophical narrative is rational, simply because it uses the word “reason.”
@BanjoAtheist I doubt Inwagen could even justify his use of the term “serious.” I can assure you, having come from these ranks, these “philosophical arguments,” are anything but serious, they’re abstract nonsense. But at least he sees a deficit. Plantinga sees the same thing.
My advice to Marxists is simple. Capitalism has already created the conditions of your revolution. But you need to cast off all Marxism and simply stick to building vast connected unions. There is no reason to even mention the name Marx. Be smart!