What, Why & How do we Know ?
Start the Week – Rationality in an Irrational Age – BBC Sounds Another fantastic edition. Well done @amolrajan – it really is possible to have intelligent dialogue on “tricky” subjects.@amiasrinivasan and @sapinker on sex between student and professor anyone? https://t.co/pzjjdUeCnE — What, Why & How do we know? (@psybertron) October 18, 2021 So as defined … Continue reading “Rationality According to Pinker”
As promised when I finished Misak’s wonderful biography of Frank Ramsey, I’m now reading David Edmonds “The Murder of Professor Schlick – The Rise and Fall of the Vienna Circle“. Most interesting chapter so far concerns the different factions of Jews and anti-semites in Vienna as we approach the 1930’s – and the consequences for … Continue reading “Schlick and the Vienna Circle”
Having finished “Frank Ramsey – A Sheer Excess of Powers” by Cheryl Misak (2020) this is a round-up review. I have a particular interest in the topic, in my Ramseyian take on Wittgenstein, which made it an especially satisfying read for me, but as a read I cannot rate it highly enough. The evocation of … Continue reading “Misak on Ramsey – the Best Consequences of a Life Lived”
Nearing the end of my reading of Cheryl Misak’s biography of Frank Ramsey in the chapter Wittgenstein Comes Home [and below, the penultimate chapter on the necessary layering of philosophy]. Previously so far: “Ramseyian Pragmatism” (this post). “A Vienna Interlude“. “The Hypocrisy of Debate“. “Ramsey, Wittgenstein, Gödel and the rest.” Final round-up: “The Best Consequences … Continue reading “Ramseyian Pragmatism”
I’m beginning to realise that in the UK philosophical canon Whitehead took up the radical empirical monism I associate with James, Bergson, Northrop and Pirsig, and which is seeing a resurgence in those increasingly rejecting a material metaphysics underlying the physical world. New-realists like Smolin, the new-panpsychists like Kastrup, Tononi and the Integrated Information Theorists … Continue reading “The Process Ontology of Whitehead’s Metaphysics”
“Digital Physics” is a “retro-nerd” film whose central character Khatchig is a penniless and frustrated maths & computing student set in the 1980’s (I think). The film itself was released in 2016. It crossed my path on Twitter in March 2019 when a dialogue with Chris Papavasilou ( @ChrisPapavasili ) led me through some questions … Continue reading “Digital Physics, Life, The Universe & Everything”
Last day of 2018, and I’ve just dug out a new read to start 2019. “To some who know a little of Russell’s philosophy, it might seem strange to speak of him being engaged in metaphysics. He is often depicted as standing squarely in the empiricist tradition that had, on the whole, rejected metaphysics and … Continue reading “A New Leaf”
After an enforced hiatus, I’m picking up on my reading list, specifically continuing David Deutsch’s “Beginning of Infinity” to completion. It remains very good, maybe my previous “highest level of discourse available on the planet” is overstating it, (and previously here) but still very good. The target chapter – the reason for reading – was … Continue reading ““The Beginning of Infinity” – an injection of optimism.”