"Not everything was better in our ancestors' days, either -- our own age, too, has produced many instances of excellence and artistic merit deserving to be imitated by posterity. At all events, let us continue to promote such honourable competitiveness with our ancestors." Tacitus. The Annals: The Reigns of Tiberius, Claudius, and Nero. Oxford World's Classics.…
Just a Thought. 19.
I'm feeling crushed by the woes of the world, as if it's incumbent on me to fix its problems and set everyone straight. I should blush at my arrogance. Blushing would at least lend me a rosy semblance of health. Instead, my face is pale and drawn from a day of fretting. And besides, I'm…
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…
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. Trust. 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…
Thinking, Fast and Slow. (And 2 worries.)Series 4.2.
Some of my books have well-worn pages, others are falling apart from use. The books I use heavily are usually those I think worth giving others. And so I do. I peruse used-book shops and thrift stores to stock my library with multiple copies. This way, I often have a book on hand to share. If…
