Sources: philosophy

Short, slightly reductive, but useful summary of basic positions in philosophy of science on what science is doing.

The essay is actually, kind of claiming this. More charitably, it argues that historians, specifically, are prone to letting the emotional and moral tension of a story corrupt their commitment to reason and evidence. This is a story (I know, right?) well told, and the cautionary tale is apt, but it kind of skips over the challenge we find in making a distinction between the kind of story that ‘makes us stupid’ and the kind of story that connects the metaphysical foundations of the commitment to rational process of scientific discipline — see Bruno Latour, eg.

A re-publication of a 1986 interview from Keyboard Magazine. A rambling philosophical engagement with the role of music and the responsibility of the musician, the essence of music and its relation to the essence of experience. Beyond my capacity to summarize but there are several passages that are strikingly similar to things said in a recent article about Tom Waits — worth reading these together.

A dense tour through Hugh Kenner’s ideas on action and intention as revealed primarily in his work on T.S. Eliot. Featuring comparative remarks by Stanley Cavell, G.E.M. Anscombe, and others. A winding literary path into practical reason and moral theory.

Justice for all is composed of the ugliest compromises…
Ben Caplan, Truth Doesn’t Live in a Book

Another outstanding entry in the ACX 2023 Book Review contest. This one a review of the medieval Icelandic classic Njal’s Saga. A hilarious and entertaining reflection on a very strange work as commentary on liberty, justice, and civilization, and the ancient Norwegian example of how we have tried to negotiate them.

An entry in the Astral Codex Ten 2023 book reviews competition, by a not-yet-disclosed poster. A deep and coherent summary of Jacob’s philosophy of economics presented in Cities and the Wealth of Nations, an extension of her earlier work on cities with greater focus on their economic significance and how typical, nation-level economic metrics miss their importance — and resulting policy often harms cities, with the further effect of harming the nation.

Excellent and enjoyable writing.

Another provocative essay by Ted Gioia, in this one he argues that the roots of modern rational philosophy and STEM culture are to be found in shamanic or Orphic musical traditions in Greece (and elsewhere). As always, good reading, lively engagement with knowledge and history, with broad ranging subject matter and unusual connections.

Consider in relation to J E H Smith’s Philosopher on Drugs

Feel overwhelmed by questions? Looking for questions? This may be the antidote: Gwern’s Open Questions — a collection of so many questions. Irresistable, immersive interogative landscape with infinite relational popups.

The first part of the article is a bracing review of the status of reality in the mind from the perspective of philosophy — which Smith sees as hopelessly conservative, stuck in a tableau barely changed since 1950. This is a startling claim and, somehow, obviously right. His main thrust is to ask why philosophers are apparently so resistant to considering the altered mind as a source of representation of reality. A standard tactic of philosophy is to go to the pathological case when analyzing a concept in order to find the boundaries of the normal case. The assumption that the mind has a ‘normal’ state that presents a ‘normal’ representation of reality, contrasted with an ‘abnormal’ state when altered by psychedelic substance, ultimately just begs the question. The idea of ‘normal’ in minds or representations of reality is itself a metaphysical assumption that needs some attention.

The rest is a tentative, personal engagement with age and loss and the rediscovery of everything outside us that is also part of us — that is, all the other living things we are commonly encouraged to think of as merely things —, and how the object part of reality is less real and less significant than the phenomenal and social part of reality that extends through us. Or words to that effect: he does a good job of intimating with prose what is a job normally left to poetry.

Nice update from Kevin Kelly — turns out, unsurprisingly, that Noah is a fan. Good interview, covers a broad range of topics of interest to Kelly.

Although The Structure of Scientific Revolutinos, his most popular work, was published in 1962, Thomas Kuhn’s ideas still permeate a lot of talk about scientific knowledge and history. It always seemed to me that a lot of representations of his idea of a ‘paradigm shift’ couldn’t possibly be accurate as they often sounded too simple and metaphysically naive — this review goes some way toward addressing that sense and seems mostly to agree with it.

A good overview of the intellectual and political life of French philosopher-sociologist Bruno Latour, who died late in 2022.

His work covers so much ground even this wide ranging review can’t really cover it. From work on the sociology of science to his later focus on environmentalism, it is a remarkable career remembered. A quote from his book Pasteruization captures the character of his thinking that most aligns with my own: “nothing can be reduced to anything else, nothing can be deduced from anything else, everything may be allied to everything else.”

A helpful, short introduction to a way of thinking about consciousness that seems to be growing in popularity. Short video composed of clips from interviews with scientists and philosophers.

Strange, wandering, often horrific reconstriction of stories from the history of Russia; a kind of poetic reflection on/of cultural identity. Reminds me of Curzio Malaparte’s Kaput in its (successful) attempt to capture a sense of reality by telling reality-adjacent stories more effective than mere description. Beautiful and remarkable writing, as usual.