What, Why & How do we Know ?
Put my comment in the thread already : “Richard Dawkins, what on earth happened to you?” by Eleanor Robertson in The Grauniad. Stick to the science, Dick. Don’t know enough about Ms Robertson as to why she gets to publish a personal tirade against the individual, but the point is real (of all the 4, … Continue reading “Dick Dawkins on Rape”
I’m reading Clive James’ Cultural Amnesia, picked-up along with his much acclaimed new translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy. More on the latter later. The title resonated with a recent quote from Eagleton in Culture and the Death of God: Like most avant-gardists, [… when it comes to Christian culture …] Nietzsche is a devout amnesiac. … Continue reading “Learning by Heart”
Piece in The Spectator to read later. Tweeted by Andrew Neil. Dreadful piece it turns out, too exclusively Christian, but the main point is true enough. The new atheists may not like it, but they’ve had their say. It’s time for a serious discussion. It’s a plug for a book that’s clearly been a long … Continue reading “The Return of God”
I’ve been reading my way through Terry Eagleton’s “Culture and the Death of God” pretty slowly – blogged a few times I was both enjoying it and finding it a bit tough going. Subject-wise I’m pretty well read, but of course Terry is really well read and not afraid to construct his rhetorical flourishes from … Continue reading “Culture and the Death of God”
Not usually one for Obit’s but I thought this quote was telling in the the context of my agenda. “I try to operate on two unconnected levels. One on the practical level of action in which I am extremely cautious and conservative. The second is the realm of ideas where I try to be very … Continue reading “RIP Tony Benn – Conservative at Heart”
Two interesting reads this morning. Dan Dennett conversation in The Edge, on the co-evolution of culture with human individual mental capabilities. “De-Darwinizing” the presumed processes to recognise the chicken-and-egg of co-creativity. Also today in Best Thinking is Alan Rayner’s piece “What Stops the Penny Dropping“, born of the frustration with “Abstract Mindedness” where we assume … Continue reading “Co-creative co-evolution”
Not only is science a branch of economics, so now is art. See: BBC Story and Guardian piece. In fact if you think about the current scale of funding into fundamental physics, actually science is the branch of culture being funded for it’s own sake. Mad. The world turned upside down. (Follow @TiffanyJenkins) Full transcript here. Less bleak … Continue reading “Art for Art’s Sake ?”
Excellent edition of Start The Week this morning guided by Andrew Marr, in stark contrast to John Humphrys’ incompetence interviewing his victims on the Today programme immediately before. Let’s hope we can forget Humphrys and talk about the balanced Religion vs Politics discussion between Stanley Hauerwas, Mary Warnock, Ray Tallis and John Gummer. Note Start … Continue reading “Chalk and Cheese”