What, Why & How do we Know ?
Further to the rant by Jerry Coyne about James Blachovicz piece which I reacted to here, there’s more. Forbes’ Ethan Siegel responded and so did Bill Storage at The Multidisciplinarian. Hat tip @chrisoldfield in all cases. Where to start? It’s still all about turf wars over broad and narrow definitions – and I’ve said what I needed … Continue reading “More on the Myths of Science”
Two or three threads came together this morning. Ongoing debates about European responses to “immigrants”, “anti-semitism” and “islamism” – politically correct to the point of perversion of sense. Insanity. And of course later (lower down) #Chilcot. Where to start? Here a piece by Chris Corrigan posted on Facebook by Johnnie Moore, on managerialism and the … Continue reading “Managerialism, Leftism, Scientism, You Name It.”
John Gray is one of those philosopher / social commentators that has been dawning on me slowly. Positive mentions since 2008, and that was a link to a “Straw Dogs” post from 2005, and again in 2009 with “Gray’s Anatomy”. Increasingly frequent notices of Guardian pieces picked from social media – including this recent long read … Continue reading “John Gray – Master of Puppets”
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”
I’m often guilty of confirmation bias. I have a particular world-view that favours balance across multi-levelled patterns, over extreme positions at any one level, so being an unfashionable position (in the blogosphere) I often latch onto examples that illustrate points that support my position. I was expecting Kahneman’s best selling “Thinking Fast and Slow” to be … Continue reading “Confirmation Bias”
Already the 3rd week of 2010 and I’ve still read only a smattering of the responses to the 2010 Edge Question “How has the internet changed the way you think ?” This George Dyson response is a good one. We used to be kayak builders, collecting all available fragments of information to assemble the framework … Continue reading “Paddling Logs”
Excellent edition of “In Our Time” today, on the subject of the ancient library at Nineveh. Another example of the “enthusiastic scholar” in Karen Radner, but all good contributions. As well as the general Assyrian / Babylonian cultural history, including Gilgamesh and the even older myth of the Great Flood, it was fascinating to hear the … Continue reading “Wise Old Fish”
Struck by this quote about Waziristan (Pakistan, north of Balochistan), the piece includes some scarier Taleban material too. “In North Waziristan, it is religion that overrides all tribal bondages and customs, making it the most conservative region.” The story in neighbouring Balochistan is mainly tribal / local disputes over natural (gas) resources. I recall all … Continue reading “Religion – The frightening kind.”