This is wonderful: An Illustrated Talk With Maurice Sendak (Drawings by Christoph Niemann) (by TheNewYorkTimes)
“Live your life, live your life, live your life.” Well said.
History, if used as a depository for more than anecdote or chronology, could produce a decisive transformation in the image of science by which we are now possessed.
Thomas Kuhn. The opening sentence to The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, publ. University of Chicago Press, 1962.
True 50 years ago, still true today.
Inky cat footprints!
From p. 170 of Clavis Bibliorum: The Key of the Bible, Unlocking the Richest Treasury of the Holy Scriptures by Francis Roberts (1675). Original from Princeton University. Digitized August 12, 2008.
Obviously the cat was trying to paw our attention to something in the text. We should inform Nicolas Cage and Dan Brown about this, it might involve popular works of biblical art and strange religious organizations with strong political ties to the state.
I want to believe.
A good many times I have been presented at gatherings of people who, by the standards of the traditional culture, are thought highly educated and who have with considerable gusto been expressing their incredulity at the illiteracy of scientists. Once or twice I have been provoked and have asked the company how many of them could describe the Second Law of Thermodynamics. The response was cold: it was also negative. Yet I was asking something which is about the scientific equivalent of: ‘Have you ever read a work of Shakespeare’s?’
C.P. Snow’s legendary 1959 lament, cited by mathematician Ian Stewart, who argues that understanding the 17 equations that changed the world is form of basic modern literacy. (via explore-blog)
I love the idea behind this because I do believe that scientific literacy is important but does being able to recite the Second Law of Thermodynamics on command really help me? I guess the assumption here is that knowing these 17 equations means that you’ll have received a more fulfilling quality of education but can’t that be said of any field? I doubt to see the relevancy of this knowledge if I’m just trying to get by in life.
Also as someone who has taken several courses on the Second Law of Thermodynamics; I’ve studied thermo and thermo is no Billy Shakespeare.
(via explore-blog)
What I’m reading in the upcoming month, what are you reading? Have you read these?
Neo-liberal Genetics: The Myths and Moral Tales of Evolutionary Psychology
Evolutionary psychology claims to be the authoritative science of “human nature.” Its chief architects, including Stephen Pinker and David Buss, have managed to reach well beyond the ivory tower to win large audiences and influence public discourse. But do the answers that evolutionary psychologists provide about language, sex, and social relations add up? Susan McKinnon thinks not.
Far from being an account of evolution and social relations that has historical and cross-cultural validity, evolutionary psychology is a stunning example of a “science” that twists evolutionary genetics into a myth of human origins. As McKinnon shows, that myth is shaped by neo-liberal economic values and relies on ethnocentric understandings of sex, gender, kinship, and social relations. She also explores the implications for public policy of the moral tales that are told by evolutionary psychologists in the guise of “scientific” inquiry. Drawing widely from the anthropological record, Neo-liberal Genetics offers a sustained and accessible critique of the myths of human nature fabricated by evolutionary psychologists.
Winter reading for a class next semester.
Zen at War
A compelling history of the contradictory, often militaristic, role of Zen Buddhism, this book meticulously documents the close and previously unknown support of a supposedly peaceful religion for Japanese militarism throughout World War II. Drawing on the writings and speeches of leading Zen masters and scholars, Brian Victoria shows that Zen served as a powerful foundation for the fanatical and suicidal spirit displayed by the imperial Japanese military. At the same time, the author recounts the dramatic and tragic stories of the handful of Buddhist organizations and individuals that dared to oppose Japan’s march to war.
Have you read this?
