What, Why & How do we Know ?
Two things I need to write about. Jared Diamond on Common Sense, in Edge 2017. “common sense should be invoked more often in scientific discussions, where it is sometimes deficient and scorned” Too right. And “Why do we use reason to reach nonsensical conclusions?” from the New Humanist which I’ve been meaning to respond to … Continue reading “Rationality and Common Sense”
I wrote a general piece on identity politics last year when the then current topic was “Islam is not a race“. The whole nation / race / culture / religion subject is fraught with definitional problems, that really only resolve in self-identity. The fact that Semite has nothing to do with being a Jew in the … Continue reading “The Labour Antisemitism Row”
From John Brockman at The Edge, remembering Frank Schirrmacher: we have a population explosion of ideas, but not enough brains to cover them. Schirrmacher quoting Dennett the quest for a second enlightenment, one which would be built on the ideas of the third culture. Brockman Researchers such as evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, anthropologist Gregory Bateson, … Continue reading “RIP Frank Schirrmacher”
Few of us would defend Hitler as virtuous, in fact few would see him as anything other than “evil”. Adolf Hitler loved dogs and brushed his teeth, but that doesn’t mean we should hate dogs and stop brushing our teeth. Says Jared Diamond quoting a friend in “Collapse – How Societies Choose to Fail or … Continue reading “Hitler’s Virtues ?”
After finishing and blogging posts about Hilary Lawson’s “Closure” and Jared Diamond’s “Collapse”, I realized I’d read a few other books recently that I hadn’t mentioned yet. After reading and enjoying the Booker-of-Bookers, Salman Rushdie’s “Midnight’s Children” a few years ago, I also tried but struggled with his “Haroun and the Sea of Stories”. Recently … Continue reading “Reading Catch-Up”
Just happen to be reading Jared Diamond’s “Collapse” – only a couple of chapters beyond the intros – Montana and Polynesia so far. Noticed this news item about sustainability of irrigation in NW India. Good read, Diamond’s book, but quite a straightforward message, I think. Natural or man-made, sustainable success or failure is always a two-way causal … Continue reading “Topical Sustainability”
Thanks to Matt Poot on MoQ-Discuss for picking up this Toronto Globe and Mail best seller list from Sunday 9th October. Well, well, well. Robert Pirsig’s ZMM is a non-fiction best seller in October 2005, sharing the list with James Frey, Jared Diamond, Bill Bryson and Malcolm Gladwell. (Dan Brown is top of the fiction … Continue reading “ZMM Best Seller in October 2005”