What, Why & How do we Know ?
I need to get this topic at the right level, following the Blackmore vs Midgley outing of yesterday. Before memes, let’s get the garbage out of the way …. It was set up as Blackmore vs Midgley, a combative argument – I have (on this very blog) agreed with both Midgley and Blackmore – I … Continue reading “More on Memes”
Whilst being a fan of both Blackmore and Dennett, one of their claims I have trouble with is the idea that consciousness (and free-will) is an illusion. I’m never sure if that’s a claim that it isn’t therefore real, which would clearly be preposterous, or simply that it shares some attributes with illusions, which is … Continue reading “That Conscious Illusion”
Recently I commented on Owen Barfield labouring his point about the mental illusion of seeing an intangible rainbow, when his real point was that “seeing” a tree was no less a mental trick of “representation”, as is even the additional mental picture we create from the other sensory perceptions available to us for the apparently … Continue reading “An Illusion is Nevertheless Real”
Richard Florida’s “Rise of the Creative Classes” looks interesting. Being plugged by Tom Peters’ blog – actually they’re plugging the sequel, but hey. Human creative drive is the main agent of change (social, cultural and technological) in recent decades (centuries ?). So if the memes are in the driving seat, who’s directing the traffic Sue … Continue reading “Another Book – Just what I need.”
When I saw this picture it said something.(Susan Blackmore and David Chalmers, picture courtesy of David’s archives on the conferences of the Centre for Consciousness Studies, Tuscon, Arizona. That centre is currently run by Stuart Hameroff. David Chalmers, the original director, is back in Canberra, running the ANU Centre for Consciousness.) Interesting review of this … Continue reading “Convergence of Science and Philosophy of Mind ?”
Reading Mary Midgley’s “Myths We Live By” at the moment, having originally picked up on a review of it way back here. Easy read, starts promising – mainly against misplaced narrow (physical) scientific views being adopted in human scale situations, and plenty of arguments against dualism and Descartes naturally. Tendency to return to “people are … Continue reading “Myths We Live By”