What, Why & How do we Know ?
Mentioned earlier collecting previous links in preparation for receiving Iain McGilchrist’s latest, well here it is: Iain McGilchrist The Matter With Things – Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World Volume I – The Ways to Truth Introduction Part 1 – Chapters 1 to 9 plus Coda The Hemispheres and the Means … Continue reading “There We Have It”
This is just a placeholder for something I should write based on my reading of Sean Carroll’s “The Big Picture” particularly chapter 36 on Fine Tuning. I’m still reading and almost finished, having posted 2 or 3 reflections so far. Whether I ever do a full review or not, it is very good despite many … Continue reading “Poetic Naturalism Meets Fine Tuning”
I’m reading Adam Zeman’s “A Portrait of the Brain” (2008). I’ve previously read his “Consciousness: A Users Guide” (2002) after seeing him give a talk in Cambridge in 2003. He’s become short-hand for me as the “Z” in from Austin to Zeman in listing all the various neuroscientists who have investigated “abnormal” behaviours in real … Continue reading “The Architecture of the Brain”
There are lots of unnecessary (*) myths about free-will, and I tend to espouse free-won’t variants in response to misleading interpretations of Libet. Some people use the repeatability of a golfer’s putt, I regularly use the thought experiment of imagining being able to return the serve from a high-class tennis player (after Daniel Wegner, just … Continue reading “Free-Will – Returning a High-Class Tennis Serve”
Strange times – partly Covid-measures-related – but between professional engagements and buried in domestic projects for a few weeks, I have dozens of bookmarked pieces for thinking and writing. Many dozens. Just very briefly caught-up on two – “The CSI Effect” from Dave Trott and “Corpus Callosum Disrupted in Autism” from Jessica Wright. The latter … Continue reading “Treading Water”
2020 update to my Epistemological Ontology from 2017/18 (Minor change of wording to emphasise the ontological reality.) Ontology because it’s a world-view of what is deemed to exist. Epistemological because it is based on knowledge. Metaphysical Monism because the stoff of knowledge is information and therefore the only stoff of which the whole edifice is … Continue reading “Metaphysical Relational Triad”
Preamble This is probably as close as I’ll get to an actual review of Tim Bollands “Life the Universe and Consciousness”. I’ve made significant comments and references here three times already: Problems, Problems — Life, the Universe and Consciousness Life the Universe and Consciousness #2 Life, the Universe and Nothing New Under the Sun? And … Continue reading “The Review at the End of the Universe”
Rounding up my reading of Michael Gazzaniga, his 2015 “Tales From Both Sides of the Brain – A Life In Neuroscience.” in particular, though having completed and enjoyed it I went back to his “Who’s In Charge” for a second go. Previously, newest first: Baloney Generator #2 ?” Gazzaniga’s Most Stunning Result. Tales From Both … Continue reading “Who’s In Charge?”