What, Why & How do we Know ?
I’m reading Kevin Laland’s “Darwin’s Unfinished Symphony – How culture made the human mind“. There’s two reasons I’m reading it but firstly, the one reason I’m posting now before I’m very far into it. Since all readings and reviews are prejudiced by prior understanding and expectations, I prefer to be honest up front what those … Continue reading “Kevin Laland’s Unfinished Darwinian Business”
Entertaining review from Eugene Wolters at Critical Theory, of Francois Dosse “Intersecting Lives” of the philosophical odd-couple Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. (Hat tip to Judith Stout @judystout1) Apart from the madness and chaotic activism from pre-1968 Paris, the lives intersect with the name-dropping list of all those you’d expect from Lacan, Foucault, Baudrillard, Derrida and more. … Continue reading “Spinoza survives the PoMo’s”
Our hearts go out to those caught up in the Paris and Beirut atrocities of the past week. At the beginning of the year we were all “Je Suis Charlie” and now 70% of my Facebook contacts have adopted the tricolor avatar of “Vive Paris”. [See also Isabel Hardman.] Charlie Hebdo was specifically – no … Continue reading “Addressing Motivations of Islamist Terrorism. Apologist or Denial?”
Tremendously powerful piece from Katrin Bennhold in the NYT. (Hat tip to tweet from Samira Shackle.) Already tweeted a few comments – but a must read, with messages worth taking seriously, however misguided the full reasoning. “In this world counterculture is conservative, religion is punk rock, headscarves are liberation and beards are sexy.” “They spoke of … Continue reading “Islamism Meets Girl Power”
The immediate data: Actual 2015 Result in Full. Comparing D’Hondt PR with FPTP in 2015 Voting. (ER Tweet) (Proportionality) Electoral Reform and A Constitutional Convention (<<< This) Unlock Democracy and Joint Electoral Reform Petition (naff link, may need to search each org for fresh link) 2015Constitutionalists [Community Union] [Paul Mason’s Blog] [Adam Bienkov’s Blog] [Left Foot Forward] [Alan Johnson] [Spiked Brendan … Continue reading “Data For When The Dust Settles Later”
Interestingly, just seconds after the previous post on the disservice done to science by the conflation of science and technology, Lisa Jardine also tweeted a link to this Sue Nelson piece on “BBC lads’ science” in the Telegraph. And, only hours after Jim AlKhalili had tweeted to “boast” (tongue in cheek) about acquisition of his iPhone5 … Continue reading “Laddish Disservice to Science @ProfLisaJardine @SueNelson @alicebell @tiffanyjenkins”
Arthur C Clarke on Information – Interviewed by Nalaka Gunawardene in One World South Asia [via Slashdot] [via McGee] on information overload, pollution, regulation and discernment – Humanity will survive information deluge he says.
[Work in Progress – Draft will be edited without notification.] [Feedback appreciated on the “See / Refs” – where more are needed? Meantime all those indicated will be elaborated and worked into the text. And obviously on the intelligibility of the text so far. Drafting arose out of the “Three Essays” post, particularly “Algorithms for Humans” and … Continue reading “The Information Ontology Metaphysics”