What, Why & How do we Know ?
A Russian Take on Political Leadership In the heat of Trump’s Putin-Helsinki summit fall-out, I posted this cartoon from Twitter to Facebook: (Hat tip @NickBryantNY for tweeting it. A Brit journalist living in US.) I posted it bare, without comment, letting the cartoon speak for itself. A picture paints a thousand words, but ~998 of them … Continue reading “A Useful Idiot Isn’t All Bad But He Ain’t Good”
[I’ve now reviewed this thread in reasonable detail and have some additional conclusions:] The Consciousness Deniers 13 March 2018 – Galen Strawson Magic, Illusions, and Zombies Rebuttal – Undated – Dan Dennett With Reply 3 April 2018 – Galen Strawson I recall seeing the original consciousness deniers piece by Strawson, but not really taking it … Continue reading “The Denial of Dennett’s Consciousness”
R.E.S.P.E.C.T is the only rule – Good Faith and Honest Intentions. (Once again for the hard of hearing, the ONLY RULE of engagement is good faith and respect for the engagement.) Rule #1 RESPECT – Understand & Question before Disagree & Criticize. Rule #2 RESPECT – No ad hominem attacks on the Individual or their Tribe. Rule … Continue reading “Rules of Rhetorical Engagement”
Preamble I’ve written on identity politics before, and most recently called the BBC Gender pay gap “mythical”. Also frequently written on freedoms of speech NOT including a right to offend, even though no-one has a right not to be offended. Recently in the PC-Pinker debate the key point is that the freedom to risk offending … Continue reading ““You Got Me”. Aha! The Cathy Newman Learning Moment”
Origin is the latest from Dan Brown. [Many spoilers and rough notes.] [This below is a doubtful piece of writing – a much better review here in “Pre and Post-Humanism”.] ===== This review focusses on the “technical” content, with anything on the plot and style or on my reading of it being relegated to a … Continue reading “Origin Where We’re Headed”
Just a bookmarking post again, but a developing and recurring theme, the myth that so many things are myths when they’re not. Just today “Learning Styles” mocked as a fashionable myth, but they’re real, not mythical. What is wrong is their prescriptive application by people with only noddy level of understanding. Several studies suggest that … Continue reading “Mythical Myths”
References to Yuval Noah Harari’s “Homo Deus – A Brief History of Tomorrow” are coming thick and fast: Andy Martin in The Independent “Transhumanism: The final chapter in humanity’s perpetual quest to be kitted out in comforting accessories.” (Previous brief reference solely on Information aspect). Philip Kitcher in the LA Review of Books “Future Frankensteins: The Ethics … Continue reading “Irrational Science Portends Inhuman Transhumanism”
There was a time when I followed John Brockman’s Edge regularly, it was a great way to pick up relationships between living thinkers you already knew and admired and others you didn’t, from across unlimited intellectual fields. The great thing about the annual Edge Question is that apart from the open question, there is no … Continue reading “Hidden Concepts – Edge 2017 – Let’s play Connections instead of Bulldog”