Calasso is especially good at describing the characters of myth and legend with a novelist’s omniscient authority — and the occasional zinger. “For 16 generations Zeus had intercourse with women from earth,” he writes, and “had always been attracted to the women of the house of Argus.” (Even the king of the gods, it seems, [...]
Category: Philosophy
Fast Science and the Philosophy of Science (guest post by Jacob Stegenga) – Daily Nous
“So much science having so much impact, yet philosophers of science have been relatively quiet…” The following is a guest post* by Jacob Stegenga, reader in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge, sharing his and other philosophers’ thoughts on “the role philosophy of science should play during the sort [...]
If history was more like science, would it predict the future? | Aeon Essays
... it is not at all clear that creating a science of history is actually a good thing. But what’s certainly dangerous is letting one particular perspective on what it means to study something scientifically take centre-stage in debating the issue. The methodological reflections of field scientists on how to do science outside the laboratory, [...]
Will brains or algorithms rule the kingdom of science? | Aeon Essays
A schism is emerging in the scientific enterprise. On the one side is the human mind, the source of every story, theory and explanation that our species holds dear. On the other stand the machines, whose algorithms possess astonishing predictive power but whose inner workings remain radically opaque to human observers. As we humans strive [...]
Picnicking on the floor by Timothy Jacobson | The New Criterion
As Chesterton saw it, home is not a place where one could ever conceivably be stuck, as millions lament their predicament today. Rather, one might want to stay there longer. Of course, certain basic conditions apply: Is a particular home capacious or stifling, filled with love or abusive? Assuming even the most favorable fundamentals, however, [...]
My Eclectic Pandemic ‘Reading’ List
To begin with these are the books currently occupying the many-hued mindscape of my waking life: seeping sometimes into my dreams. 1. Moby Dick by Herman Melville (read/performed by Anthony Heald on Audible Stories) I’m also listening to Anthony Heald’s reading of WD Grouse’s translation of the Iliad - I listen to it from time [...]
On Audible Stories Melville’s Moby Dick performed by Anthony Heald is available for free
If you aren't already, listen to the remarkable performance of Anthony Heald reading the greatest adventure story plus spiritual parable ever told. It will blow you away. — Read on stories.audible.com/pdp/B0036N9OKA
Halford Mackinder’s Geographic Pivot of History
In this richly illustrated presentation, we discuss the theory for Geographic Causation in Universal History proposed by Sir Halford Mackinder in his paper - The Geographic Pivot of History delivered as a lecture in 1904. Art enthusiasts will be interested in seeing how the selection of classic paintings used in the lecture synchronise with the [...]
Current Controversies in Philosophy of Religion // Reviews // Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews // University of Notre Dame
Draper opens the collection with a vision for philosophy of religion: that it broaden its focus by paying more attention to non-Western religions and to philosophical issues that concern religion in general (like how religion might make progress, or the philosophical significance of the diversity of religions); that it distance itself from theology (or at [...]
Why we read: the joy of books
There is an ubiquity of apps these days which condense books into snippets or short video/audio presentations. I like the idea. After all, time is the rarest ‘commodity’ in today’s world. (The self quarantine that many of us are currently going through has given us a new sense of the value of personal time.) However, [...]
