What, Why & How do we Know ?
As a practitioner of positive psychology (and an atheist) Jonathan Haidt’s “The Happiness Hypothesis” reads at times like a spiritual self-help book, and in a sense it is, but it is supported by a mass of academic and scientific references. The Psybertron agenda has been on evolutionary psychology as a description of both epistemology (what … Continue reading “Haidt’s Happiness”
Finished Rebecca Goldstein’s “Betraying Spinoza” the other day, and found it an excellent piece of work. Having been very busy for a couple of days, I’ve not really had a chance to compose a detailed review. For now … Radical objectivism. Ultimately the self-other dualism is dissolved by expanding the scope of self. I am … Continue reading “Cosmic Man”
Noticed a paradox before in Thoreau’s descriptions of building a railroad with bridges … to get places … which I mentioned in this piece on The Devil Wears Prada “Everybody Wants to Get Ahead” Came to mind again when I saw this story “to get rich quick, build roads fast” story of road-building opening up … Continue reading “Building Bridges”
Is a line from the wonderfully ironic “The Devil Wears Prada” a film I saw for about the 3rd or 4th time yesterday … just killing time … one of those films that always seems to be showing on some TV channel. I don’t know anything about the original writing behind it, and there is … Continue reading “Everybody Wants To Get Ahead ?”
Greg Proops presents a BBC review of Kerouac’s influential 1957 book, with interviews with the survivors. (The 127 foot continuous roll manuscript was real, auctioned recently, but being the product of the single benzedrine trip is apocryphal, apparently – several edits too before publication, already ten years old when first pubished. Interesting that Jack was a … Continue reading “50 Years On The Road”
What’s the best next move in the game of life? I’m forever pointing out the evolutionary nature of all life decisions, so I thought I’d make a little post I can point at when necessary. (If you prefer skip straight to Nicky Case’s excellent visual “Evolution of Trust Simulator” in the footnote, and come back … Continue reading “Basic Game-Theory in Evolution”
Amidst the flurry of social media debate around the Charlie Hebdo massacre, I created this set of three more carefully considered posts: #1 There Is No “Right To Offend” http://dlvr.it/835pwf Freedoms of expression are protected in law, but the nature of expressed content is not objectively defined as “rights” in law. #2 The Court Jester http://dlvr.it/84rSXv Defence … Continue reading “Pulling Charlie Together”
Noticed this before, but prompted to share it …. The menu at the top of the Guardian Home Page typifies what’s wrong with science media reporting: Science appears as a sub-category of news at the second level, not a higher level sibling of news, alongside, say Culture, Business, Technology and more. Science “news” – is … Continue reading “When is Science News?”
BBC Magazine piece on the recent US poll on religious belief comprising (mainly) two comments by religious conservative Ron Dreher and moderate atheist David Dickerson. I’m constantly baffled that sexual orientation and marriage is a central issue on both sides – surely it takes all sorts, and normal is a numbers game that needn’t be … Continue reading “Historically, friends always win”