Year: 2015

ISIS are a barbarous abomination. They need taking out independent of any wider peace-making and state-building “security” considerations.

Scarily on @BBCR4Today this morning Humphrys suggested ISIS and the idea of their caliphate were no longer to be derided, but an entity to be taken seriously in the tri-partite break-up of Iraq/Syria. No way Jose, they are inhuman criminals.

Fortunately the (?) interviewee confirmed that “Boots on the Ground” were certainly very much “ruled-in” to the anti-ISIS coalition considerations – no commitment as part of current talks, sure, but NOT ruled-out. This is absolutely the kind of action that should be taken within proper international / UN arrangements involving cooperative Mid-East states. Absolutely as Charles Kennedy called-for in opposing the US /UK “WMD” debacle that led us into Iraq by the wrong route, with the wrong mission-creep objectives.

We owe it to Charlie (RIP) to get it right this time.

More later, but an interesting piece. http://phys.org/news/2015-06-obsession-metrics-corrupting-science.html (HT to Sabine Hossenfelder @skdh )

The problem with measuring things is (a) you need to choose an object (thing) to measure, and (b) you need to choose another object (measurement) to quantify. Both those things are prejudiced by the model you started with. If your model is a hypothesis you’re attempting to falsify, that’s OK. But contrary to popular belief that’s only a small (albeit crucial) part of science – most of science is creative exploration, and objectification is (literally) the last thing you need.

Stop measuring and start listening, experiencing unmediated by your chosen measuring device or measures, with an open mind, without prejudice. You might learn something.

In fact the article concerns meta-science, about measuring academic inputs to and outputs from science resources, not about scientific measurements themselves, but the same considerations apply. Values are more important than measures. The topic arose in this blogging project from the perspective of “scientific management” – governance of any human system, whether the content is science or widget-making. Perversely science suffers disproportionately from scientific management. Science is (should be) scientific enough without it.

I’ve made myself “unpopular” a couple of times with my agenda of (self-)restraint when it comes to free speech – it’s a freedom we all have all the time, but nevertheless best used where there is some prospect of positive outcome.

Sure, sometimes martyrdom (figurative and/or literal) is necessary, if the point needs to be made to publicly assert the right and take the flak (literally and/or figuratively) when the right is under physical denial. Let the deniers damn themselves from their own mouths (and/or gun barrels). But hopefully, there’s more to life than that.

Great piece here from Cruella (Kate Smurthwaite) in The Teacher magazine, on the relative priority of creating conditions in society where exercising the right of free speech is a positive experience, rather than encouraging 13 year old girls to set themselves up for abuse.

In all honesty, if I’d known when I was 13 what I know now,
I would have spoken up less. Now who wants me to come
into school and tell girls that?

Kate, of course, has had that on-line abuse experience in spades. I’ve been much more fortunate.

[Post Note : YouTube “News at Kate” version of the story.]

An agenda of mine that how funds get allocated to big science projects needs to be set by social values, not by science itself.

“Research councils often back big science out of ignorance ….”

“pathways to impact … a charter to support bullshitters.”

“…. perhaps it’s time to open up the debate to the public about what scientific agendas we should be pursuing and how they should be resourced. This could help move away from a trend where our governments are buying into ‘vanity projects’, and would have the potential to hold them more to account.”

Which means they need to be justified in terms of meaningful values.

The idea of research being funded because it leads to economic benefits is as dumb as education being designed for career paths. Those are development and training.

[Post Note : “inevitably an element of politics” in big science Jon Butterworth]

[Post Note : Shell (& BP “big oil”) influence science exhibits they sponsor – no shit Sherlock.]

Addition to the collection http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-ouch-32888548

Headway Blog http://whoareyounow.org/

Listened to Beyond Belief BBC R4 broadcast Sun 24th May on iPlayer this morning. It featured Stephen Law (@_CFIUK), Nick Spencer (@TheosNick), Marylin Mason (BHA) – with a brief inserted piece from Rory Fenton (also of the BHA) – in conversation with Ernie Rea.

Stephen and Marylin’s stories are similar to mine. Naturally atheist, yes, but that’s a negative statement, about something not believed, so more than that. Atheism-plus. Finding Humanism when noticing boxes being ticked in positive outlook and values. Few actual requirements in the accepted definitions of atheism; so possible for Christian atheism too, though usage of the word can vary the intended definition with context.

Whether “science alone” can answer the big questions of morality is a matter of broad & narrow definitions. Narrowly defined no, but broadly yes, knowledge believed based on evidence of experience. Certainly moral values have evolved with us.

Some debate about the origins of humanism, much as per two recent posts. Ancient Greek – Epicurian/Stoic origins – thinking about good lives leaving gods aside, very human gods anyway at this time. (Same as Grayling’s talk here). Versus Nick’s focus on post enlightenment / renaissance forms of humanism. Stephen conceded humanism does not preclude Christianity, it does not necessitate atheism. Marylin “hostile” to religion only where it impinges on individual daily politics – essentially the secular view.

Discussion of Humanism being used in an anti-religious sense, is really one of boring semantics. There is a lot of shared history. In fact Stephen called it a “phoney war” and then (dare I say) engaged in it – putting prickly straw-men into the discussion with “Of course what Nick thinks … / what Nick is attempting to …”

From my perspective, there was no real disagreement here. The origins of humanism are important in understanding its evolution, but no-one owns the resulting reality or its definition. Humans probably evolved humanist values independent of religion, and religion may have focussed on co-opting, codifying and maintaining them. What matters is what’s positive about it in a secular society; certainly not exclusively atheist, more atheism-plus, to use Stephen’s word. In fact surely, the more we share claims to subscribe to the content of Humanism the better? They’re in our custody now and in future.

Two significant points as the discussion drew to a close:

The idea of “bedrock” in education. Something people can be taught before and whilst they learn by thinking for themselves from experience and first principles. Humanism should be a part of that. (We may not want codification cast in stone, but there needs to be a resource – see also the Grayling piece again.)

Secondly, in defining that Humanism, Nick highlighted one possible point of difference. The clue is in its name. One key aspect is in understanding “what it means to be human“.

Hear, hear.

Had an interesting evening Thursday, listening to Rupert Sheldrake (again) at Theos, the Christian religious think-tank (for the first time), and having the opportunity to question and talk with him and with other Theos members. Also acquired a copy of Nick Spencer’s “Atheists, the Origin of the Species“; more on which later. [Post Note : Full audio of Sheldrake here.]

I sympathise with Sheldrake, indeed agree that most of his ideas benefit from [ie rationally deserve] proper scientific consideration. Pending “materialist promissary notes”, I’m even happy to hold his panpsychism-based ideas as possibilities. (Interestingly, Iain McGilchrist who was cited as a recent Theos guest speaker, and someone whose ideas I recommend to anyone who’ll listen, holds a not-quite-panpsychic position in seeing the brain more as our “transducer” of consciousness (maybe of proto-consciousness) than its physical container.) None of which means I believe in the paranormal (by definition there’s no such thing), or that “morphic resonance” is the most likely explanation. Sue Blackmore, protege of Dawkins and Dennett, of course held the same position as Sheldrake in taking scientific research of the paranormal seriously. No-one can accuse Sheldrake of not taking a properly sceptical scientific stance on these (whackier) topics. It’s science’s response to scientific questions that is the target here.

Nailing his “10 theses” to the door of the “church of reason” Sheldrake succeeds in maintaining his pariah status in mainstream science. I questioned whether greater progress might be achieved by focussing on fewer key questions that deserve answers, than turning the situation into one large battle on a very broad front. Like, for example, Unger & Smolin who support (at least) two of Sheldrake’s positions (but couldn’t admit as such). One that physical laws and constants are fixed, and somehow don’t deserve evolutionary explanations of their values and form in the current universe(*). And, two, that when it comes to form and knowledge in the universe of physics, mathematics has some absolute privileged “Platonic” position. Science needs to recognise its own metaphysical dogmas as such.

One point I take issue with Sheldrake is in placing Dennett in the camp of denying the self and the reality of consciousness. Dennett rejects “the hard problem” characterisation of their explanation. He very much sees a common sense evolutionary explanation based on information as form independent of physical substrate, as do I, as does Sheldrake.

Anyway, I’m posting these Sheldrake notes under the “Atheists, the Origin of the Species” heading because the common point is that so much of the history of post-enlightenment science has had the denial of soul-like-stuff as its materialist agenda, the thin end of a theist wedge, rather than honest, sceptical investigation of how it is properly explained by natural science.

I’m only maybe 1/4 thru reading Spencer’s “Atheists, the Origin of the Species” since Thursday, but the parallel with Anthony Grayling’s talk “Values and Humanist Values” the night before is already making me smile. They’re both taking a historical view – Spencer on Christian atheism mainly post-1500, Graying on non-Abrahamic humanism from the Greeks onwards – the common ground is obvious. Christian humanism, Christian secularism and Christian scepticism are as real as their atheistic, scientistic counterparts.

[Reformation] sceptics could believe as confidently as any religious adherent. They were simply doubtful of the rational grounds for belief, and its capacity for certainty. Scepticism was the antithesis of dogma, not faith.

The fact that theological differences might be a cipher for political and social threats was a nuance easily lost amid the aroma of cooking [human] flesh. Theological certainty could kill, and it wasn’t even certain.

Earlier in the introduction, Spencer uses a quote from Francis Bacon that has intrigued me before and, in my case. has led to a more than passing interest in OxBridge intellectuals of the late 19th and early 20th centuries that converted to Catholicism late in life.

“a little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism;
but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion.”

Or in my own corollary, even a little more attention to dialogue on philosophical common ground, might bring humanity to more rational shared values and priorities.

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[(*)Note – and there are other real physicists questioning these if sources are required.]

[Post Note : Good timing. Humanism & Christianity Discuission on BBC R4 Beyond Belief between Nick Spencer (Theos, above) Stephen Law (CFI_UK) and Marylin Mason (BHA) – and Rory Fenton (BHA). Non-contentious agreement, more notes here.]

Listened to A C Grayling talk to the Central London Humanist Group last night at Conway Hall. He’s a favourite speaker because he is such a good talker, drawing on deep knowledge of the history of philosophy since the greeks, interspersed with anecdotes from real life politics and stories from classic literature. All done naturally without slides and minimal (if any) notes.

Content-wise, his messages were pretty straightforward, his title redundant. All the values being talked about are humanist, or were humanistic anyway. Pretty well all philosophy on values, virtues and morality from the Greeks onwards is humanistic. About good behaviour of humans. Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics remains the classic standard work. The clear transition from the masculine warrior virtues to those civic virtues of a civilised society. Freedom of thought and action, think for yourself with thoughtful consideration for others, minimum harm, golden rule, etc.

Thinking for yourself and giving consideration for others at all times may be inconvenient, messy and inefficient, but it is that very muddle that helps preserve the freedoms. Legality should be case law, not detailed rules codified with comprehensive legislation and objective definition – cast in stone. And systems of enforcement should be multiple and loose, not directly constrained by technology. Bi-cameral governance should be clear on different roles and responsibilities and on different bases for membership – eg not both by popular voting.

Diversity, imperfection and redundancy are messy but good. Hear, hear say I.

Conversely, the religious and totalitarian alternatives of stricter codification and the psychological and physical means of enforcement, provided plenty of anecdotal and Q&A content for such a talk with a group of liberal, atheist, secular, humanists. “Simple, no need to think for yourself, we’ve got some clear rules for you.” Even if applied benevolently, such a scheme ossifies the natural evolution of value and, if too efficient and effective, is too easily open to malevolent or misguided misapplication. The messier, distributed, diverse approach wins. So far so good.

But, what about those values. After virtues, virtue? After virtue? Freedom and Consideration. That’s it?

All variations on that, all additions, are essentially pragmatic and contingent, towards smoother, efficient running of society, leaving more time to live life, more time free from worrying about difficult decisions, more opportunity to delegate and share the workload of governance of that society. Free society open to question and challenge, naturally, but self-sustaining and smooth running.

With only those basic values, not all decisions can be straightforward or self-consistent to work out the balance of freedoms and consequences of every decision and action. Life is full of inconsistency and conflicting pressure across multiple time-scales. It’s good that everyone – as many as possible, including the youngest in education – appreciate the philosophical questioning and thinking processes, but not that we all spend all our time being philosophers, fully working out the solution to every problem. We’d get nothing done, we’d live no lives.

So my question. Where and how do we agree practical values, useful rules of thumb for typical real life situations?

Grayling’s reply was “nowhere; we don’t”. As soon as we do record them, they risk being documented definitively, cast in stone and abused. Fair point, but.

Interestingly however, in his response Grayling used the “story” of The Good Samaritan to illustrate the message that encoding the specific values of the specific situation, would never have the same power by parallel association to apply the “story” as a parable on good behaviour in wider life situations. How often will we actually get the opportunity as a bystander to help the innocent victim of a mugging in the street?

Clearly the place we document, in order to learn, communicate and educate values of living is in stories. Parables and literature that are clearly not intended to cast values as rules in stone, but which nevertheless contain the values in ways we can appreciate in their literary (fictional, mythical, apochryphal) context yet “slip”(*) sideways into our individual daily lives, lived now in the present.

We need great works of literature. We need good books.

What was it Samira Ahmed said – the story of Ishmael reminds how good a work of literature the Old Testament is.

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(*) For “slipping” see Hofstadter.

[Post Note ; And same day today, BHA tweets on The Golden Rule.]

[Post Note : and to reinforce Samira Ahmed’s point, here is Samira Shackle in New Humanist, interviewing Azar Nafisi, writer of “Reading Lolita in Tehran”]