Nicholas Carr’s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_G._Carr) contention is that the internet is rewiring our brains to negative effect. He is not merely talking about ‘dumbing down’. What he posits is more significant: that human culture has been built steadily over our literate history by deep and meditative reading, and the internet threatens to undo this process. Millions of people are […]
The Shallows by Nicholas Carr Read More »
A superb study (2009) into the social insects – ants, bees, wasps and termites. Richly illustrated and brimming with first class scholarship throughout, this volume will give you an exciting and absorbing education into its subject matter. 576 pages in W.W. Norton & Co. hardback edition. ISBN 978-0393067040
The Super-organism Read More »
Jonathan Dollimore (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Dollimore) tackles a huge theme here. It is the tangled topics of death, desire and loss in Western culture. His aim is to investigate the central paradox that desire is the bedfellow, so to speak, of loss and death. As he puts it ‘what connects death with desire is mutability–the sense that all being
Death, Desire and Loss in Western Culture by Jonathan Dollimore Read More »
Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._O._Wilson) argues for the position that there must be a fundamental unity to all truth across the sciences and humanities. This is a noble vision. Wilson sees its origin in the Ionian Greek belief that the cosmos is an orderly whole running by laws discoverable in thought. His own inspiration is
Consilience by Edward O. Wilson Read More »
A really entertaining whilst informative work about how London has disposed of its dead throughout history. This can be dipped into and enjoyed especially by those of a ghoulish disposition. Ironically, Arnold’s writing brings London richly ‘to life’. ISBN 978-1416502487
Dutch born Catholic priest and writer Henri Jozef Machiel Nouwen wrote some of the most profound yet accessible works about the spiritual life in the twentieth century. This is one such, about the spiritual life in three movements. Our best chance at salvation is found in reaching out to others. ISBN 978-0006280866
If you have never tried a novel by Thomas Hardy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hardy) start with The Return of the Native (1878). Its themes of sexual politics, thwarted desire, and the conflicting demands of nature and society mark it out with a modern character. Still underlying is the trademark sense of foreboding and classical tragedy. Hardy’s landscape descriptions of
The Return of the Native Read More »
Barnes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Barnes and http://www.julianbarnes.com/) may have equals on the English language literary scene but none, I think, better. Here he dissects the sense of his own mortality in a crafted prose that is breathtaking in its poise and elegance. He asks if the fear of death is ‘the most rational thing in the world’, how does one contend
Nothing to be frightened of Read More »
We are all familiar with John 18:38 where Pontius Pilate asks Jesus ‘What is Truth’. That particular question is as old as philosophy itself. What does it mean to be truthful? What role does truth play in our lives? What do we lose if we reject truthfulness? No modern philosopher is better suited to answer
Truth and Truthfulness by Bernard Williams Read More »
