What, Why & How do we Know ?
Lisa Jardine, Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary College, University of London and Honorary Fellow of King’s College Cambridge was interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s “Devout Sceptic” programme yesterday. An interesting person – atheistic, brought up in an orthodox Jewish extended family, though her parents were also atheistic intellectuals, but with a love of … Continue reading “Lisa Jardine’s Bronowski Moment”
Today is Jacob (Bruno) Bronowski’s (official *) birthday and Timothy Sandefur marked the day by sharing his daughter Lisa Jardine’s 2010 documentary “My Father, the Bomb and Me“. Lisa and Bruno are (were) both heroes to me and I’ve mentioned them many times here. Most relevant to that film documentary was Lisa’s Conway Memorial Lecture … Continue reading “Bronowski and Operations Research”
Happy New Year everyone, just the one resolution here. Not posted since November and not read much either. Kinda(*) stalled I guess. Work got serious in a shift from planning & requirements gathering to funding & implementation, so I’m distracted by the day-job – in a good way, for all the right reasons – and … Continue reading “Reading (& Writing) Catch-Up Jan 2020”
I mentioned noting that one of Rebecca Goldstein’s earlier works was Incompleteness – the Proof and Paradox of Kurt Gödel. Since Gödel is an existing interest of mine, and Goldstein’s writing has never let me down yet, it was a no-brainer to obtain a copy. (I’ve since also obtained a copy of her fiction The Mind-Body Problem – … Continue reading “Comprehensively paradoxical Gödel – Rebecca Goldstein”
Scary piece by Lisa Jardine about a hero of mine (and hers) where it seems she may have lost her admiration for her father Jacob Bronowski. I have long had the “I beseech you …” Auschwitz scene burned into my psyche, that it was always the punctuation to the grand sweep of science he had … Continue reading “Turned Out Nice Again”
Not a million miles away from Lisa Jardine’s point in the previous post. Scott Kaufmann reports a bizarre “sexual harrassment” story, that almost got out of hand when formal responses to official channels were actually moving in completely opposite directions. A funny read anyway. [Original Report] [ Final Update] [via Gimbo] This is the key … Continue reading “Official Rules Escalate Problems”
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 ?”
Following the Lisa Jardine trail … lots of interesting stuff Francis Bacon and Milton, to name a few … anyway … at the Center for Editing Lives and Letters (CELL) … The Auchinleck Manuscript was probably created in London in 1330/1340-ish and is currently housed in the National Library of Scotland. This is an on-line … Continue reading “The Auchinleck Manuscript”