Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9

Update: I have decided to take the text of this post down until I have a chance to revise and repost it. The com­ments the post has received at Alas have con­vinced me that, as I said in com­ment #19, my words are both con­jur­ing things I do not intend and fail­ing to make dis­tinc­tions that I do intend, and this weak­ness in the writ­ing means that what I want to say, the ques­tions I want to ask and explore are not only not get­ting across, but are being mis­rep­re­sented. It’s not so much that I think the revi­sion will change the mind of any­body who has posted a crit­i­cal com­ment, but that, at least, the crit­i­cism will be directed at what I actu­ally mean to say, not the unin­tended impli­ca­tions of my hav­ing said it not as well as I should have. Hope­fully, I will have that revi­sion up within the next week or so.