What, Why & How do we Know ?
I’ve been using parts of the verb “moderate” in ambiguous contexts recently, but deliberately because, whatever its etymology, its different uses are surely related at root. Everything in moderation is a kind of plea for moderation, a middle-way between extremes – a good example here on dietary “fads” from Julian Baggini. He concludes – in … Continue reading “Moderation”
8th July 1968 was a Monday 50 years ago when Robert Pirsig set off from the Twin Cities on his Honda CB77 Superhawk with son Chris riding pillion and friends John and Sylvia Sutherland alongside on their BMW. That road trip to California formed the narrative of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZMM). You … Continue reading “After the Fireworks”
Fundamentally – What do I know? Black holes ain’t so black, and science ain’t so different from the humanities. Singularities have horizons crammed with information. Nothing objective is more fundamental than the information available. This is a summary of recent work ostensibly on quantum gravity and the role of humans more generally in the science … Continue reading “Fundamentally – What do I know?”
So many intellectual inputs and opportunities for dialogue of which barely a tenth can be grasped over a weekend at Hay on Wye, at the How the Light Gets In HTLGI 2018 Festival. [Meta – specific sessions and update on the weekend experience here.] Below is my summary of the messages I heard in the … Continue reading “Are We Nearly There Yet? #htlgi18 #htlgi2018”
Compiling my Hay-on-Wye 2018 How The Light Gets In report, starting with the meta stuff below, content report is here. Mid-day Friday to Mid-day Sunday this year. My third time. Last year being a fallow year for the event. Previous year weather was excellent, combined the event with some days walking in the Brecon Beacons … Continue reading “#HTLGI2018 Update Meta”
Time to get down to detail with Peterson. As I’ve said before I don’t know enough of his actual work to be a fan, but I do like his conversations. Constructive dialogue is my main agenda right now, especially when the alternative is people engaging in objective criticism invariably talking past each other. An exchange … Continue reading “Getting to Grips with Jordan Peterson”
Was the title of a talk given by “Elliot George” to the Teesside Sceptics in the Pub last Thursday. I had done some homework beforehand and was expecting to be publishing some review. However it was so dire I can see little value in compiling my notes. Before we even get to the content, it … Continue reading “Why “Intelligent Design” Isn’t”
Recasting the arguments from the previous post, it’s comments – and a twitter thread of disagreements. How this started: Public tweet – FTP – recommending “Brother Hamill’s great blog”. Public response – Me – a two word response “[great, but] wrong, though”. All arguments / debates start with a gap or a point of contention. … Continue reading “Dennett and the “Little People” – Round#2″