What, Why & How do we Know ?
I’ve blogged before “Too much to read, too little time” noting references picked-up during the reading I do manage to achieve – a reading list growing faster than the pace of possible reading. Not uncommon apparently – here a 1989 paper from David Lavery – “How to Gut a Book“. Here quoting Thomas Wolfe’s, Eugene Gant The … Continue reading “Book Anxiety”
Mentioned this “new science” web site once before (in connection with an Owen Barfield review). The net result is one of the whackier, crankier, sets of ideas for bringing the spiritual to bear over the classical objective scientific, and I can’t find much to identify with, except an enormous “Reader’s Journal” of books and other … Continue reading “Doyletics Again”
Having finished Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, it was a toss-up between more Dennett or David Chalmers (or something completely different like Barbara Tuchman, still unread). Chalmers name-drops an impressive list of acknowledgments, but is brave enough to point out that Hofstadter (his original mentor) and Dennett largely disagree with him. I think he overhypes the exciting … Continue reading “David Chalmers Consciousness”
Recently I commented on Owen Barfield labouring his point about the mental illusion of seeing an intangible rainbow, when his real point was that “seeing” a tree was no less a mental trick of “representation”, as is even the additional mental picture we create from the other sensory perceptions available to us for the apparently … Continue reading “An Illusion is Nevertheless Real”
Just a few sketchy holding points for now … Finished Hofstadter’s Godel, Escher, Bach. Excellent to the end. Skimmed the tougher mathematically and notationally detailed sections – seemed important to get the thrust on trust, which I think I did. I think his final dialogue, almost explicitly explaining the “fugue” underlying all the dialogues throughout … Continue reading “Reading Updates”
Just read Lavery’s Evil Genius now in its entirety. Looks unfinished (is that deliberate ?); ends with scene on 10th November 2004 (385th anniversary of Descartes’ birth). “I have set up a headquarters …” or is he (or she) just waiting for us all to join him (or her) there ? (Are the forward and … Continue reading “Lavery’s Evil Genius”
Just updated my link to David Lavery‘s Owen Barfield site a couple of days ago. Today Robert Pirsig himself recommended David Lavery’s “Evil Genius” site via Ant McWatt on the MoQ Discussion Board. Who is Joanna Climacus ? Real or fiction ? (Or is it Johanna Climacus – both spellings on the site ? The … Continue reading “David Lavery’s Evil Genius”
Read Owen Barfield’s “Poetic Diction” and “History in English Words” a year or so ago, and blogged several items. [here][here][here]. I was doing a search on Barfield today in preparation for reading more of his work and came across two interesting sites. This review of Barfield’s “Saving the Appearances – A Study in Idolatry” on … Continue reading “Words as Idols”