What, Why & How do we Know ?
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?)
Struck by a parallel, reading the Roger Anderton translation of the Dusan Nedelkovich (1922) work on Roger Boscovich (1763). A parallel with Alan Rayner. Earliest piece on unified field theory (100? years before Mach and 150 before Einstein) already led to ideas of relativity in the world as we experience it being distinct from any … Continue reading “Space-Time / Space-Matter”
Just heard Dan Roam (Napkin Academy) speak at Fiatech2013. Great use of Ian McGilchrist’s divided brain model, … where objective analytical intellect has crowded out the more holistic visual aspect of experiencing the real world. The emissary having forgotten who is master. We need visual outlines before we express in written language. Excellent presentation by … Continue reading “Divided Brain @dan_roam #fiatech2013”
Dan Pink’s “Drive” caught on as a best seller in the last couple of years in promoting the concept of “Motivation 3.0”. Of course, the terminology catches the fashion of the internet generation, and good luck if the brief readable book, with its “Toolkit” of ideas does lead to more management catching on in more … Continue reading “Motivation 3.0 – Pink Does Maslow”
Mentioned earlier I was reading Stuart Kauffman, and was impressed by his extending the story of life beyond the ubiquitous focus on DNA and genes. After that it’s been a bit of a roller-coaster, as this biologist covers psychology, philosophy and fundamental physics in his quest of Reinventing the Sacred – a common fault I … Continue reading “Reinventing the Sacred”
Another hat tip to David Morey; we have a dialogue going between emails, Facebook and the blogs, and David keeps picking up excellent source references. Here the latest example: A conference speech from the Bank of England analysing the banking crisis. The Tower of Basel metaphor is about less is more – a few simple … Continue reading “The Tower of Basel”
Iain McGilchrist talking with Bryan Appleyard at the Wellcome Foundation brain exhibition. Thanks to David Morey for the link on Facebook. Timely in view of my reading of Haidt’s Righteous Mind. Interesting, the idea that the right brain understands why it needs the left, but the left doesn’t understand why it needs the right – … Continue reading “Master and Emissary”
Reading Jonathan Haidt’s “The Righteous Mind” after enjoying his “Happiness Hypothesis“. (Also just finished Umberto Eco’s “The Prague Cemetery“) Given the current high profile of the #Breivik case, Haidt’s work is a very important piece on the rationalist delusion, being 100% rational is absolutely not sane for a human – in fact it’s a good … Continue reading “Reading Quickie”