Cultural evolution essay 6 Jul 2010 At On The Human there’s an essay by Bill Benzon, a friend and colleague of mine, on cultural evolution: “Cultural Evolution: A Vehicle For Cooperative Interaction Between The Sciences And The Humanities”. It’s open to informed and moderated comments in what they cutely call a Sympoze. One of the comments is mine, of course. This is an initiative of the National Humanities Centre, an independent institute for advanced study. Check out some of the earlier essays: Elliot Sober, Pat Churchland, Margaret Boden(!), Gillian Beer; easily a fabulous site. I put my reply beneath the fold… Evolution Metaphysics Social evolution Evolution
Ecology and Biodiversity The constancy of change and the lack of balance 16 Sep 2007 All the strangers look like family All the family looks so strange The only constant I am sure of Is this accelerating rate of change — Peter Gabriel, Downside-Up, from the Ovo Album Creek Running North has a delightful rumination on the lack of a balance of nature, in which… Read More
History Chocolate history 20 Jan 2013 Reader Jeb McLeish has brought to my attention an early attempt to do the metaphysics of chocolate: The Natural History of Chocolate by D. de Quelus (1730): The Spaniards, who were first acquainted with Chocolate after the Conquest of the new World, have laid it down for an undoubted Truth, that Chocolate is cold and… Read More
Evolution What sorts of people 14 May 2008 In Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Act V scene 1, Miranda says O, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in’t! The third line gave Aldous Huxley the title of his future dystopia, Brave New World. Somewhere between Miranda’s… Read More
I rather like that way of putting things. All too often I just end up saying things like “Dilthey was wrong! Wrong I tells ya!” BTW, when it comes to your rule about not calling people “peodophilic communist sexist pigs” are you willing to make an exception for Beria? The shoe does seem to fit in his case.
Hi, The “Sympoze” portion on On The Human, is a their incorporation of the external vote button for http://www.sympoze.com It’s a social bookmarking site for academics…the idea is to have a place where academics can collectively share, promote and discover online content. An academic blogger can use the external vote button to make it easy for other academics to promote the blogger’s content. Check out the site. We’re in beta testing now, and we’d love feedback.
I liked the ‘I Know it when I see it’ comment. Not an excuse but partly the result of language diffrences. I find I constantly have to exert much effort in translation. I don’t just know it when I see it but find that I have great difficulty developing a syntax and language to describe the movement (I should be perhaps describing this as replication or reproduction) that I do see. Coupled with the mountian ranges of archive and field work it’s a constant juggling act. I find myself making methodology on the hoof and not slowing down to work out how to express it in clear and simple language. But that may be a personal failing. Looks like a fruitfull debate. Look forward to reading more.