Whenever you speak to someone, you are presuming the two of you have a certain degree of familiarity - which your words might alter. So every sentence has to do two things at once: convey a message and continue to negotiate that relationship.

Disgust is intuitive microbiology

I like ice hockey. No one is ever going to ask me to write about that as a metaphor for life.

As every student in Philosophy 101 learns, nothing can force me to believe that anyone except me is conscious. This power to deny that other people have feelings is not just an academic exercise but an all-too-common vice, as we see in the long history of human cruelty.

the mind is a neural computer

Most wars are not fought over shortages of resources such as food and water, but rather over conquest, revenge, and ideology.

We can make fun of hockey fans, but someone who enjoys Homer is indulging the same kind of vicarious bloodlust.