What, Why & How do we Know ?
As it says on the value of a robust comments section :
Negative comments aren’t all poison, by nature.
Sure, but negative comments, even poisonous ones on topic, don’t need to hate the person.
Dennis Farina (RIP), speaking of his switch in his 40’s from a Chicago detective to being a professional actor.
“… everybody was extremely nice to me.
If the people were rude
and didn’t treat me right,
things could have gone the other way.”
So true, reminds me of the Neil Hannon (Divine Comedy) lyric.
Fate doesn’t hang,
on a wrong or right choice.
Fortune depends,
on the tone of your voice.So sing while you have time ….
And as if to reinforce the point further in the New Yorker today: “Why do some innovations spread so swiftly and others so slowly?” Answer :
… people talking to people is still the way …
… change happens, not the logic in the change or the decision itself. (Hat Tip to David Gurteen for the link.)
I’m not a climate sceptic, but I’m a sceptic of “science reporting (claiming)” of global warming or any other non-local-closed-system global / cosmic events.
Interesting that the journalist here, David Shukman, can make a point out of
“X is common sense, but
I’ve never heard a scientist actually claim it before”
(X here being the idea that the changes of temperatures and other effects wouldn’t necessarily be expected to occur at a stead rate. Doh!) Science is by definition NOT common sense – think about it. Nor is science wisdom either – even Krauss admits. Science is the slave, a tool of common sense and wisdom, not a substitute for either.
I really do not care about anthropocentric global warming one way or another – what I do care about in a big way is the massive waste of global brain cells and good will expended debating it and diverting resources from common sense. It’s simply common sense of values to maximise the efficiency and minimise the collateral damage as we consume resources. Even “renewable” is simply a matter of scale in time and space.
[Post Note : Interesting blogger Anthony Watts – like me a “presentation sceptic” whilst being actively concerned with doing the common-sensical green thing. The specific post is interesting Hofstadter-wise too – in terms of recursive patterns as artefacts of the processing, not the data. Hat tip to Andrew Neil on twitter.]
Another for the Master / Slave collection:
This time David Hume quoted by David Gurteen:
Reason is the slave of the passions.
David Hume(1711-1776)
vis Master & Emissary – McGilchrist after Einstein & Nietzsche
and Logic vs Passion – Whyte / Boscovich
(possibly alluding to Hume?)
A history of the timeline. I like the “Histomap” something I’ve tried to use for schools of thought, mentally at least – but the timeline idea itself is a favourite of mine going back to Jorn Barger – the original blogger – and previously used here by me. (Hat tip to Brain Pickings.)
[And talking of Jorn, one for later – Philosophy Survey.]
Great piece from Slavoj Zizek in the New Statesman.
The animality with which we are dealing here ” the ruthless egotism of each of the individuals pursuing his or her private interest ” is the paradoxical result of the most complex network of social relations (market exchange, social mediation of production). That individuals are blinded to this network points towards its ideal (“spiritual”) character:
in the civil society structured by market,
abstraction rules more than ever.
Great post from Rev Sam over at Elizaphanian. As an atheist (science & technologist), I was seriously concerned previously that Sam, as a non-scientist (theist & theologian), was being drawn into the science of the green movement (through The Oil Drum, etc) – the last thing we needed was more scientism. Wisdom prevails.
Thai football. I guess if your name is Tuck, you can be excused an obsession with the food, but “ritualistic civility” is the real value.