What, Why & How do we Know ?
Prompted by this click-bait headline on Pan-Psychism from Philip Goff in Aeon magazine. “Panpsychism is crazy, but it’s also most probably true.” “… physics tells us nothing about the intrinsic nature of the entities it talks about, and indeed that the only thing we know for certain about the intrinsic nature of matter is that … Continue reading “The Integral Information of Pan-Proto-Psychism”
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”
Does the very word “information” imply a consciousness to be informed by it? Simple answer is no, but that’s about defining what we mean by information – a language problem – but there are important underlying concepts worth unpicking. Let’s separate two issues first. Firstly, in theory – Verb-Nouns – nouns whose root is a … Continue reading “Information > 140chars Quickie”
I’ve been interacting with Jaap van Till for the last year or two, mainly on Twitter. His blog is The Connectivist. He recently made a reference to, and separately blogged about, Ann-Marie Slaughter’s “The Chess Board and the Web“ in a comment to me. And my response was to liken the sound of her “Chessboard” … Continue reading “The Connectivist”
I’m exploring available theories of consciousness that tie themselves in open-minded ways to fundamental physics, that is they don’t automatically exclude themselves from physical explanation by overly reductionist reliance on objects already (accepted as being) defined by physics. Yesterday, I summarised what I heard from Robert Kuhn’s Physics of Consciousness / Closer to Truth resources. … Continue reading “Integrated Information Theory”
I have many times left hanging the idea that causation is seriously weird, if you get down to looking closely at what we really mean or try to explain how it works. “… important assumptions about time and causality at base — seriously weird concepts when you research beyond common sense — a recurring issue … Continue reading “Unpicking Confused Causation with Massimo Pigliucci”
Lots of positive philosophical pieces on Martin McGuinness trajectory from murderer to peacemaker. R.I.P. The realism expressed simply by Tony Blair “You only make peace with your enemies” speaking on BBC Radio 4 Today programme this morning. With ever more conflict and potentially conflicting views on any number of issues swirling around us the lesson is … Continue reading “Blessed are the Peacemakers”
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.”