POWER of meanings // MEANINGS of power
  • About
  • Introduction
  • Browse the book
    • All the pages alphabetically >
      • A >
        • (Ability and influence in) social and non-social power
        • Agency as "Wiggle Room"
        • Power: Against the Flow, with the Flow
        • Are you free?
      • B >
        • The Bad Other
      • C >
        • Compassion as a prerequisite for durable social change
        • The Costs of Order
      • D >
        • Default Mode Network and the Power of Patterns
      • E
      • F >
        • Foucault's "power is everywhere"
        • Free will
        • From Binary Power to Social Complexity
      • G >
        • Gender and the Practical Demands of Complexity: Beyond Oppressors and Oppressed
      • H >
        • How Buddhism Dissolves the Free Will Dilemma
      • I >
        • Intentionality and power
      • K
      • L >
        • "Power" in language
        • Limited resources and power
        • Louis XIV and Absolute Power
        • Louis XIV (abridged version)
      • M >
        • (Power and Powerlessness in) Madama Butterfly
        • "May" power
        • Me against entropy
      • N >
        • The Nonlinear Path of Unlearning
      • O >
        • Once safety is secured
        • Borders and the Problem of Order
        • Order, Entropy, and the Limits of Power
      • P >
        • Patterns in Human Life
        • Power and powerlessness are intertwined
        • Power as ability
        • Power as influence
        • "Power" Beyond the Languages I Know
      • R >
        • Recognizing power’s complexity isn’t denying inequality
        • Responsibility Is Necessary, but Not Simple
        • Rethinking agency and responsibility
        • Rethinking Power: From Marx Through Critical Theory to the New Paradigm of Complexity
        • Rethinking Power through Kuhn: Paradigm Change in the Study of Social Conflict
      • S >
        • Schopenhauer in an Age of Polarization
        • Social Change as Unlearning Patterns
        • Social Justice and the Problem of Binary Thinking
        • Synonyms of power
      • T >
        • Theory of micro- and macropower
      • U >
        • Unlearning Patterns with Compassion
      • V >
        • Vysotsky's Coat
      • W >
        • What Cults Reveal About Human Freedom
        • What is power?
        • What "Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed" Reveals ​about How We Imagine Cultural Change
        • When Power Compensates for Powerlessness
        • Whose Disorder? On Entropy and Anthropocentrism
        • Why Influence Is Not the Whole Story of Power
        • Why This Project Is Scholarship: Interpretivism, Hypertext, and the Rhizome
    • Completed pages >
      • My creative process
  • Author

Current Table of Contents​

This page is the current table of contents for POWER of meanings // MEANINGS of power, a hypertext book in the process of being written. Its pages are interconnected through links rather than arranged as a fixed, linear text. Blue links connect entries within the project, while purple links lead to outside sources. 

Readers may wonder how to approach a book that is still in the process of becoming. In more conventional formats—such as printed books or journal articles—the ideas appear in a fixed form. Yet this stability can be somewhat misleading. Authors’ thinking rarely remains unchanged after publication. Over time, they refine arguments, develop new concepts, reconsider earlier claims, or express familiar ideas with greater nuance. Those developments simply appear later, across multiple publications.

This project is different not because intellectual development is unusual, but because openness to revision remains part of the work itself. Readers do not see the full history of each page’s development. Instead, they encounter the version that exists at a given moment, with the understanding that it may later be revised, expanded, reorganized, merged, or retired as the book continues to take shape.

For readers, this means approaching the project not as a static text but as an ongoing intellectual exploration. A page read today reflects the author’s thinking at this stage of the work. Returning later may reveal revisions or new connections. Such changes are not contradictions so much as signs of continued reflection, clarification, and growth.

Visit my blog for announcements and links to my new essays.

  1. Ability and influence: What language suggests about power
  2. Against the flow, with the flow
  3. Agency as "wiggle room"
  4. Are you free?
  5. The bad other: ​Introducing a new concept of moral othering​
  6. The coat that may have belonged to Vysotsky 
  7. The costs of order
  8. Compassion as a prerequisite for durable social change
  9. Default Mode Network and the power of patterns
  10. Did Louis XIV have absolute power? (full version)
  11. Did Louis XIV have absolute power? (abridged version) 
  12. Free will and the myth of “either you have power or you don’t”
  13. From binary power to social complexity
  14. Gender and the practical demands of complexity: Beyond oppressors and oppressed
  15. How Buddhism dissolves the free will dilemma
  16. ​Intentionality: Where power ends (and powerlessness begins)
  17. Limited resources and power
  18. "May" power
  19. Me against entropy 
  20. Michel Foucault: "Power is everywhere"
  21. Micropower: ability and influence​
  22. The nonlinear path of unlearning
  23. "Once safety is secured": Making room for reflection
  24. Borders and the problem of order​
  25. Order, entropy, and the limits of power
  26. Patterns in human life
  27. Power and powerlessness are intertwined
  28. Power and powerlessness in Madama Butterfly
  29. Power as ability
  30. Power as influence​
  31. "Power" in language
  32. "Power" Beyond the Languages I Know
  33. Recognizing power’s complexity isn’t denying inequality
  34. Responsibility is necessary, but not simple
  35. Rethinking agency and responsibility: A call for compassion
  36. Rethinking power: From Marx through critical theory to the new paradigm of complexity
  37. Rethinking power through Kuhn: Paradigm change in the study of social conflict
  38. Schopenhauer in an age of polarization​
  39. Social justice and the problem of binary thinking
  40. Social change as unlearning patterns
  41. Theory of micro- and macropower​
  42. The vocabulary of power: How we talk about power without naming it
  43. Unlearning patterns with compassion
  44. What cults reveal about human freedom
  45. What is power? (It is not a thing)​
  46. What Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed reveals about how we imagine social change
  47. When power compensates for powerlessness
  48. Whose (dis)order? On entropy and anthropocentrism
  49. Why influence is not the whole story of power
  50. Why this project is scholarship: Interpretivism, hypertext, and the rhizome
If you are interested in getting updates about this project (e.g., when new pages are published), please sign up for the newsletter on my main website.

I use AI tools as a kind of writing partner—to shape drafts, clarify arguments, and explore phrasing. But the ideas, perspectives, and direction are always my own. Every piece here is part of an evolving personal project. For more details about my use of AI, see here.
  • About
  • Introduction
  • Browse the book
    • All the pages alphabetically >
      • A >
        • (Ability and influence in) social and non-social power
        • Agency as "Wiggle Room"
        • Power: Against the Flow, with the Flow
        • Are you free?
      • B >
        • The Bad Other
      • C >
        • Compassion as a prerequisite for durable social change
        • The Costs of Order
      • D >
        • Default Mode Network and the Power of Patterns
      • E
      • F >
        • Foucault's "power is everywhere"
        • Free will
        • From Binary Power to Social Complexity
      • G >
        • Gender and the Practical Demands of Complexity: Beyond Oppressors and Oppressed
      • H >
        • How Buddhism Dissolves the Free Will Dilemma
      • I >
        • Intentionality and power
      • K
      • L >
        • "Power" in language
        • Limited resources and power
        • Louis XIV and Absolute Power
        • Louis XIV (abridged version)
      • M >
        • (Power and Powerlessness in) Madama Butterfly
        • "May" power
        • Me against entropy
      • N >
        • The Nonlinear Path of Unlearning
      • O >
        • Once safety is secured
        • Borders and the Problem of Order
        • Order, Entropy, and the Limits of Power
      • P >
        • Patterns in Human Life
        • Power and powerlessness are intertwined
        • Power as ability
        • Power as influence
        • "Power" Beyond the Languages I Know
      • R >
        • Recognizing power’s complexity isn’t denying inequality
        • Responsibility Is Necessary, but Not Simple
        • Rethinking agency and responsibility
        • Rethinking Power: From Marx Through Critical Theory to the New Paradigm of Complexity
        • Rethinking Power through Kuhn: Paradigm Change in the Study of Social Conflict
      • S >
        • Schopenhauer in an Age of Polarization
        • Social Change as Unlearning Patterns
        • Social Justice and the Problem of Binary Thinking
        • Synonyms of power
      • T >
        • Theory of micro- and macropower
      • U >
        • Unlearning Patterns with Compassion
      • V >
        • Vysotsky's Coat
      • W >
        • What Cults Reveal About Human Freedom
        • What is power?
        • What "Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed" Reveals ​about How We Imagine Cultural Change
        • When Power Compensates for Powerlessness
        • Whose Disorder? On Entropy and Anthropocentrism
        • Why Influence Is Not the Whole Story of Power
        • Why This Project Is Scholarship: Interpretivism, Hypertext, and the Rhizome
    • Completed pages >
      • My creative process
  • Author