Words + Enthusiasm = Erinaceous

Plenty more TEDTalks here. Including the delicious Erin McKean. Next time someone quotes a dictionary definition at me as part of an argument, I will be pointing them at this one. And given that I’ve recently reported on reading “Breaking The Spell”, here is a link to Dan Dennett speaking on dangerous memes – ideas … Continue reading “Words + Enthusiasm = Erinaceous”

Reading Update

Finished Dennett’s “Breaking the Spell” – mentioned in the previous post. Excellent. Two promptings led me …. … to Hume (from Alice’s comments), I really must read in the originals, so I’ve downloaded texts from Gutenberg. (Also contact from Alice reminded me I’d still not finished “Atonement”, still sitting on the bedside cabinet – just time to … Continue reading “Reading Update”

Meta-Belief

I’m reading Dennett’s “Breaking the Spell” at the moment. I’ve made it clear I’m a fan of Dennett as a pragmatic philosopher, unlike Dawkins as an unreconstructed logical-positivist reductive-determinist scientist. Their language and quality of argument are chalk and cheese. “Breaking the Spell” is explicitly an argument against god and religion aimed at an American … Continue reading “Meta-Belief”

Extended Phenotypes

I happen to be reading Dennett’s “Breaking the Spell” at the moment, so refreshing after Dawkins (creator of the “extended-phenotype” term) attempt on the same topic. Dennett opens early in his book with the lancet-fluke & ant example to illustrate the “viral” metaphor of a meme infecting a brain producing behaviour inexplicable in terms of the brain’s host’s … Continue reading “Extended Phenotypes”

Pinker’s Mystery of Consciousness

Interesting piece from back in January in Time magazine by Stephen Pinker entitled The Mystery of Consciousness. Thanks to David Chalmers for the link; he’s referred to in the article in connection with the easy / hard problem distinction. Lots of other good articles linked in and alongside the article. Daniel Wegner’s psychology-based work gets … Continue reading “Pinker’s Mystery of Consciousness”

Wittgenstein Disappointment

Instead of reading David Morey’s novel (which I had with me on our trip to the Gulf Coast over the Thanksgiving holiday) I finished Wittgenstein’s “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus” and got about half-way through “Philosophical Investigations”. The latter so far just seems to continue casting doubt on the science (logic) of natural language, and of course logic … Continue reading “Wittgenstein Disappointment”

An Atheist Christmas

Excellent edition of The Edge NEwsletter, includes not only Dan Dennett, recovering from an acute heart condition, and Evolutionary Morality from Nick Wade of the NYT, but also last weekend’s Observer piece by their religious correspondent Jamie Doward, reviewing the three popular science books lined up against God in the best seller charts as we run … Continue reading “An Atheist Christmas”

Engineering at the Dawn of Time ?

Terry Bristol, Director of ISEPP (University of Oregon) introduced the concept of reality as Engineering into the Friends of Wisdom environment, which caught my imagination, because I’m an engineer and came to this space through engineering. (Notice, Linus Pauling and Bob Ulanowizc connections BTW.) And, having been inflicted by Pirsigian Metaphysics of Quality before noticing … Continue reading “Engineering at the Dawn of Time ?”