Cephalus, in answer to Socrates' question of whether life is harder towards the end, "For certainly old age has a great sense of calm and freedom; when the passions relax their hold, then, as Sophocles says, we are freed from the grasp not of one mad master only, but of many." (3) Plato, Trans. Benjamin…
Just a thought. 15.
"It is very sweet to do a just action which is disagreeable to those we do not like." Victor Hugo. By Order of the King. (Or, The Man Who Laughs.) The Valjean Edition of the Novels of Victor Hugo. New York: P.F. Collier & Son. (1912?) The Waif Knows Its Course, p 391.
Just a thought. 14.
Aaron CT Smith, a cognitive scientist from Melbourne, Australia, has given one of the most brilliant accounts of what beliefs do for us that I have seen to date, Flock Theory, “In my estimation…beliefs follow the same kinds of rules governing flocks of birds…First, successful beliefs fit the rule of separation. Like birds in the…
What we might stand to lose. Final, Series 5.5
In the final instalment of this series, I lay a few bones on the table for your consideration. I hope you value them as I do. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "If the human race is under threat in some way that we don’t yet understand, it will probably be at the community level that we either solve the…
Building a model of the world is a community project. Series. 5.4.
Recall my project here. In this series, I lay out some "bones" for thinking about the way -- the why and the how -- the people we depend on for our survival, delectation, and companionship (our peeps) help us navigate the world. And we them. You might pick up these bones, if you find them…
Survival. Series 5.3.
Often times we pick up facts that appear useful or interesting and bring them back to our peeps for inspection. Invariably, when we shake a fact out of a gunny-sack and lay it on the table, they’ll gather ‘round and ask, What is it? Where did you find it? Pick it up, we urge. And turn by…
Mattering to each other. Series 5.2.
In this series, I lay out some "bones" for thinking about the way -- the why and the how -- the people we depend on for our survival, delectation, and companionship (our peeps) help us navigate the world. And we them. You might pick up these bones, if you find them interesting, and bring them…
What’s in a name? A face, a voice, laughter, habits….Series 5.1.
The names of the people we love are like beads on a Rosary, well-worn worry stones oft-fondled for comfort and reassurance. See also, The human GPS network: navigating our lives and, 5.2 through 5.5
Pam-Toons. Fist Pumping. Series 4.4.
I've here in mind the fist-pumping variety of politically vocal people, those certain that one side is leading us to another dark ages and the other to a totalitarian state. It appears that for some "left and right" thinking is characterized by black and white thinking. Nuance is lost. And with this loss, so too…
The Art of Rhetoric: Working through the challenges and disagreements that arise from our shared lives. Series 4.3.
In my previous post, I suggest Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow and Jonathan Haidt's The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion are complementary reads. (See, Thinking, Fast and Slow. (And 2 worries.) and Just a Thought. 14. ) Why? Because a study of Haidt's moral theory alongside Kahneman's work on our cognitive/perceptual errors and biases might…
