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Being obducted into other worlds
I have been sucked into the latest game made by the Myst people, Obduction. I’m about a third of the way through, but the premise seems to be that there are four or five worlds existing in the same space in different dimensions, and all are connected to the same tree. Or they are supposed… Continue reading
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I’m not worried about the humanities
Humanists complain loudly about the direction taken by modern universities, and with good reason. An education in the humanities generally requires spending a lot of time reading and thinking on one’s own, and engaging in wandering and complicated conversations with like-minded souls, usually without any new technologies, policy decisions, or scientific discoveries coming along as… Continue reading
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Intellectuals
Most people, for very good reason, place themselves at the center of their universe. I’m not saying they place themselves at the center of the universe, which would be a greedy and ignorant thing to do. They place themselves at the center of their own universe, which means that they place at the center of… Continue reading
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Brave New World
Reading Kevin Kelly, The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future (Viking, 2016). Kelly is one of the founding editors of Wired, and this book is about the promise of emerging technologies to, well, shape our future. A paragraph early in the book exhibits its general vibe: So, the truth: Right… Continue reading
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Reflections on Comics Movies
I just saw the trailer for the upcoming Dr. Strange film. Now I am thoroughly a long-time deep-dyed nerd – from Dark Star to Star Wars to Doctor Who (Tom Baker!) to LOTR to Primer to Skyrim to Firefly to Mass Effect and on and on and on. I was a nerd long before those… Continue reading
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Justin E. H. Smith, The Philosopher
Reflections on Justin E. H. Smith, The Philosopher: A history in six types (Princeton UP, 2016). This is a timely, marvelous book that raises fruitful questions and criticisms especially about the ways philosophy is conceived by its modern-day, academic practitioners. Clearly, throughout human history, there have been all sorts of people who have wondered and… Continue reading
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Hegelian vs. Kuhnian idealism
[from an essay in progress on idealism] What we have seen so far is that there is no observation of the world, and no understanding of it, without a theory. We have also met several idealists who believe, in varying ways and for different reasons, that theory is not just important, but really, really important:… Continue reading
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Krug’s pen
Wilhelm Traugott Krug (1770-1842) was the philosopher who succeeded Kant in the chair for logic and metaphysics at the University of Königsberg. Just before taking on that role, he had thrown down a challenge for Schelling’s idealist philosophy: could Schelling, or any idealist, pretend to offer any sort of explanation why, from the Absolute, any… Continue reading
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Peter Adamson, and the gap problem
It’s wonderful to have Peter Adamson’s perspective on this perpetual problem in teaching the history of philosophy: whom do I cover, and whom do I leave out? Adamson, of course, is bravely executing “The History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps” podcast. He knows it’s impossible, but he’s doing what he can do give some basic… Continue reading
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John Dee’s books, magic, and ruling the world
There’s a great little essay here by Brooke Palmieri on the JHI blog, which I’m reposting here mainly so that I don’t forget to go back and study in more detail. Excerpt: No wonder Dee could argue so forcefully in General and rare memorials pertayning to the perfect arte of navigation (1577), and his other… Continue reading
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The 3QD experience
I’ve contributed essays to the aggregator site 3quarksdaily.com for two years, and have just decided to bring that relationship to a close. Nothing went wrong – no falling out, no throwing of lamps, no screaming fits of “I just don’t love you anymore!” I just decided that I’d had my run, and it was time to free… Continue reading
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Experiencing the moment
David Hume, that most sly student of human experience, declared he couldn’t find himself anywhere. As he gazed inward, he came across sensations, feelings, passions, and moods, but he had never come across aself in the way one might come across a vivid shade of turquoise or a lampshade or a heartbeat. He could find… Continue reading
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On knowledge regimes
Yesterday I came across the phrase “early modern knowledge regime,” and it teased my curiosity. What could this term mean? [I already have a short list of books to start reading, but I’ll begin first with what’s in reach and on top of my neck.] It probably comes from Foucault: “Truth is a thing of… Continue reading
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