philosophy ← the digital glebe

Does Fear Still Sell? 8

Apr

2013

I think the ‘bobos’ have had their chips to be honest. If there’s hope, it lies with the proles. “Concern about the environment is legitimate, but catastrophism transforms us into cowering children. Distrust of progress and science, calls for individual and collective self–sacrifice to ‘save the planet’ and cultivation of fear: behind the carbon commissars, ...

Myth of the Flat Earth 7

Apr

2013

Wikipedia is finally catching up at last. Myth of the Flat Earth. “Since the early 20th century, a number of books and articles have documented the flat earth error as one of a number of widespread misconceptions in popular views of the Middle Ages. The misconception has had no currency in historical scholarship since at ...

Know Thy Enemy 3

Apr

2013

“When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?” John Maynard Keynes Almost to a man, the four main parties in UK politics -Lib Lab Con SNP- all repeat the following mantra with little deviation: “Climate change is the greatest threat faced by humanity and the most important political issue of ...

A European Asterix? 3

Feb

2013

“The idea of Europe is dying, yet the sense of identity is strong -at least in intellectual elites. Perhaps it is less so among the common people, used to celebrating as heroes people who killed citizens of neighboring countries.” Umberto Eco l’Espresso Feb 2013 ‘Bad times for those who believe in the European Union courtesy ...

Rupert Sheldrake: “Science Set Free” 3

Jan

2013

Part 1 of a talk by Rupert Sheldrake at the conference ELECTRIC UNIVERSE 2013: The Tipping Point, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. “Many scientists like to think that science already understands the ways of the natural world. The fundamental questions are answered, leaving only the details to be filled in. The impressive achievements of science seemed ...

2013: The Tipping Point 4

Dec

2012

Production values are certainly up, but I do wonder where the EU people are going to go with this in 2013? Mixing plasma cosmology with comparative mythology was always going to be a risky strategy: “This brief video clip is a quick-draft giving first glimpses of a major project for 2013. The project will be ...

Who Killed Pico? 4

Nov

2012

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola 24 February 1463 – 17 November 1494 In 2007 it was discovered that Pico was poisoned under mysterious circumstances, together with his close friend Angelo Poliziano -who it was found had also died as a result of arsenic poisoning just seven weeks before, on the 24th September 1494. Pico was interred ...

LDV @ 560

Apr

2012

Leonardo da Vinci: born April 15th 1452 “I know that many will call this useless work; men who desire nothing but material riches and are absolutely devoid of wisdom, which is the food and only true riches of the mind. For so much more worthy as the soul is than the body, so much more ...

Profetie 10

Mar

2012

“Men shall speak with men who hear not; their eyes shall be open and they shall not see; they will speak to them and there shall be no reply; they will ask pardon from one who has ears and does not hear, they will offer light to one who is blind, and to the deaf ...

Discendi et loquendi ratio

Feb

2012

Marsilio Ficino to Luca Fabiano, his scribe: greetings. NATURE endows us with many instruments through which we may learn: eyes, ears, noses, taste and touch. But she gave only a single instrument by which we may teach, namely the faculty of speaking. She has certainly warned us that we should use the service of learning ...