What, Why & How do we Know ?
Lisa Jardine’s contribution to the BBC’s annual poll is pretty well my own agenda. She says Health and Safety controls life today. Rules rule – it’s kinda obvious. Her objection was to those people entrusted with applying the rules in every walk of life. Rules like HS&E get authority from their rationlality. You’d be hard … Continue reading “Who Rules ?”
Just a few sketchy holding points for now … Finished Hofstadter’s Godel, Escher, Bach. Excellent to the end. Skimmed the tougher mathematically and notationally detailed sections – seemed important to get the thrust on trust, which I think I did. I think his final dialogue, almost explicitly explaining the “fugue” underlying all the dialogues throughout … Continue reading “Reading Updates”
Some thoughts reading Herrigel, still mid Dr Austin. Nothing new, just recognisable significance. (Kingston on-line to the rescue.) Basic stuff – Koans – learning documented Koans, learning documented answers to documented Koans, learning aproaches / concepts applicable to documented Koans, are all irrelevant; this is a meta-meta-meta-meta- … -meta-problem. (I did say this year’s word … Continue reading “Zen Lessons”
[Mopsos][via ScaleFree] Anu was hooked by this quote “Ultimately, the economics of knowledge have something to do with the economics of love.” What’s lurve got to do with it ? Well it’s the extreme end of implicit trust, and we all know trust is the number one item in information at the moment. Top level … Continue reading “Economics of Love”
A main thread of mine is that apparently scientifically justified rationale is often way off the mark when it comes to the truth of any human-scale issue. I blogged last year a debate involving Steve Jones and George Monbiot, on the non-scientific aspects of scientific claims. To have faith in rational scientific argument is of … Continue reading “Scientific Truth”
Not That Easy [via Ton] In this [Steven Covey] interview he declared management of people superfluous. One manages money, stocks, portfolios, and the like, not people. Give people purpose and a course, and then stop interfering with them. The interview ended with this quote [emphasis Ton’s]: In most organisations there is a lack of trust, … Continue reading “Not That Easy”
Blinded by the Light #2 – Blogged this link yesterday. Having now read it I thought I’d share this substantial quote from Rory Remer at Kentucky Uni (working in “educational and counselling psychology” – though it could be any domain of interest IMHO.) I know nothing of the source credentials, but I feel I could … Continue reading “Blinded by the Light #2”
Metaphors We Live By. From JOHO’s booklist. Blogged several earlier mentions about how metaphorical aphorisms often seemed closer to the truth than any apparently rational view of a reality being described. (Part of my main thesis in fact as “many a true word”.) Bizarre, but here’s a book by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson on … Continue reading “Metaphors We Live By”