Alfred North Whitehead (Whitehead, Alfred North | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy) was one of the most brilliant minds of his age. In Adventures of Ideas (1933) he offers the most accessible statement of his conception of ‘process philosophy’ (Process Philosophy (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)). In a nutshell this approach challenges over 2000 years of philosophical assumption. […]
Adventures of Ideas by Alfred North Whitehead Read More »
The runaway success of last year. Even if you do not read this for its fictional value it might offer protective insight into the sexual fantasies (one must be careful to say) of some women. Overwhelmed by the wealth and sophistication of businessman Christian Grey, ingénue Anastasia Steele is lured into a simpering compliance with
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A noted author of several books as well as articles in such publications as The Washington Post, The New York Times, Newsday, and Vogue, Susan Jacoby (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Jacoby) attempts to set the record straight by demonstrating just what sort of role both individual freethinkers as well as more general movements and groups have had on significant
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The Scots are a small nation living in the north west corner of the British Isles remote from the traditional centres of power in England and the European continent. Yet miraculously the Scots have contributed an enormous amount to Western culture and civilisation. Their contribution has been quite disproportionate to their population. Eighteenth century Edinburgh was
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Andy Clark (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Clark), Professor of Logic and Metaphysics at Edinburgh argues for the position of the Extended Mind (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Extended_Mind and http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/embodied-cognition/). In its crudest form the contention here is that our minds are not something confined to what’s going on inside our skulls. As Clark says.. “certain forms of human cognizing include inextricable tangles of feedback,
Supersizing the Mind by Andy Clark Read More »
Prolific author Andrew (‘A.N.’) Wilson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._N._Wilson) takes us on a delightful tour of the recent past, the age of Elizabeth II. Starting from the year of the coronation in 1953 Wilson covers such familiar topics as the Suez crisis, Vietnam, The Beatles, Princess Diana, the miners’ strike, the Cold War, the Angry Young Men, the
Our Times by A.N. Wilson Read More »
Professor Steve Jones (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jones_(biologist)) of University College London offers us (1999) Darwin’s account of evolution by natural selection illuminated by the findings of twentieth century science. Evidence is brought forward from palaeontology, geology, botany, zoology, oceanography, anthropology, microbiology, epidemiology, medicine and plate tectonics. Jones beautifully expands or enriches Darwin’s themes using Darwin’s examples – pigeons, dogs, farm
Almost like a Whale by Steve Jones Read More »
The philosophy of time (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/time/) is one of the most deeply perplexing subjects of all. In this exploration of the nature of human time the author explains the surprising ways in which our minds and bodies keep track of time, and how our sense of time is linked to our sense of self. Our lives are
Winston Churchill’s Afternoon Nap by Jeremy Campbell Read More »
Andrew (‘A.N.’) Wilson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Wilson_(writer and http://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/18/magazine/the-busy-busy-wasp.html) offered us, in 1999, this study in the decline of religious certainty. The book focuses on artists and intellectuals and covers Gibbon, Hume, Kant, Marx, Garibaldi, Bentham, George Eliot, Lenin, Tennyson, Carlyle, Darwin, Huxley, Shaw, Hardy, Hegel and Freud among others. Very good on the devastating sense of emotional loss
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