What, Why & How do we Know ?
Mentioned in the previous post I’d been re-reading / re-viewing Dan Dennett content since, as ever, I found myself defending what he really believes about human consciousness against those that dismiss him as some kind of illusionist, compatibilist, denialist. He’s actually an evolutionary systems-thinking realist like the best of us. There’s some determination amongst popular … Continue reading “Vive La Difference 2023”
This is a side post following a truly excellent Dan Dennett lecture at the Royal Institution this evening. More on which later, but I was prepared for disappointment meeting a hero of mine in the flesh. He did not disappoint. However this post concerns a single Q&A. James Shaftesbury(*) asked a politically incorrect question on … Continue reading “James Shaftesbury – Vive la Difference”
I mentioned in my review of Anatoly Levenchuk’s “Systems Thinking 2020” having some subsequent dialogue about common ground in other areas of the Psybertron agenda. A significant overlap is the work of Karl Friston (Free Energy Principle / Markov Blankets / Emergent Organism / Active Inference) in my reading of Mark Solms, and in Levenchuk’s … Continue reading “The Emperor’s New Markov-Blankets?”
Despite writing much about this before (in the links below) I needed to collate again and add the recent Twitter exchange with Jonathan Haidt (also below): Vive la Différence – April 2015 prompted by gender difference denial by Alice Roberts with Michael Mosely in BBC2 Horizon 29th September 2014. Gender difference is a good thing, better … Continue reading “Vive la Différence, one more time.”
Vive La Différance – or a white swan in the hand is worth more than risking a few black feathers in the bush. I’ve regularly used the Derridan version of difference (différance) ironically and usually when talking about gender differences. That minefield of: what differences there really are between men and women (specifically archetypically, but … Continue reading “Vive La Différance, Again.”
One in a long line on the idea of Vive la différence. So many beliefs on gender equality are simply political correctness – as Djokovic suggests – which have nothing to do with the intended equality of opportunity and human rights. Sure, you could argue – morally – sport should not be a professional commercial business, … Continue reading “Vive la Différence – Let’s Get Physical.”
Our hearts go out to those caught up in the Paris and Beirut atrocities of the past week. At the beginning of the year we were all “Je Suis Charlie” and now 70% of my Facebook contacts have adopted the tricolor avatar of “Vive Paris”. [See also Isabel Hardman.] Charlie Hebdo was specifically – no … Continue reading “Addressing Motivations of Islamist Terrorism. Apologist or Denial?”
Tremendously powerful piece from Katrin Bennhold in the NYT. (Hat tip to tweet from Samira Shackle.) Already tweeted a few comments – but a must read, with messages worth taking seriously, however misguided the full reasoning. “In this world counterculture is conservative, religion is punk rock, headscarves are liberation and beards are sexy.” “They spoke of … Continue reading “Islamism Meets Girl Power”