25 MAY 2016 by ideonexus
Political Pragmatism
A reasonable and logical way of doing things or of thinking about problems that is based on dealing with specific situations instead of on ideas and theories. An approach to philosophy, primarily held by American philosophers, which holds that the truth or meaning of a statement is to be measured by its practical (i.e., pragmatic) consequences. William James and John Dewey were pragmatists.
Pragmatism in common usage may mean simply a practical approach to problems and affairs. But it’s al...Folksonomies: politics political philosophy
Folksonomies: politics political philosophy
1 26 APR 2015 by ideonexus
Sign-Function Linking
It is clear that if the phonic substance lost its privilege, it was not to the advantage of the graphic substance, which lends itself to the same substitutions. To the extent that it liberates and is irrefutable, glossematics still operates with a popular concept of writing. However original and irreducible it might be, the “form of expression” linked by correlation to the graphic “substance of expression” remains very determined. It is very dependent and very derivative with regard t...Folksonomies: writing post modernism
Folksonomies: writing post modernism
1 
notes
notes21 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
The Internet Archive is Inspired by the Library of Alexan...
“We bought it because it matched our logo,” Brewster Kahle told me when I met him there, and he wasn’t kidding. Kahle is the founder of the Internet Archive and the inventor of the Wayback Machine. The logo of the Internet Archive is a white, pedimented Greek temple. When Kahle started the Internet Archive, in 1996, in his attic, he gave everyone working with him a book called “The Vanished Library,” about the burning of the Library of Alexandria. “The idea is to build the Library... 1 notes
notes12 AUG 2014 by ideonexus
Autodidact
At a young age, Gates was already an autodidact, someone compelled to learn for himself what he needed to know. Over the course of his life, Gates has maintained this habit: He dropped out of college after two years, but he has continued his education through incessant reading and conversing. Michael Specter, a New Yorker writer who profiled Gates for the magazine, has said that the Microsoft founder “is one of these autodidacts who reads, reads, reads. He reads hundreds of books about immu... 1 notes
notes09 AUG 2014 by ideonexus
Dan Nerren Secular Invocation
Let us open our hearts to the welfare of all people in our community by respecting the inherent dignity and worth of each person, and realize our differences of race, religion, and party affiliation are merely superficial. Our common humanity unites us all, and may we recognize that through our interdependence we share a common fate.
In order to achieve the greatest good as citizens of Tulsa, it is important for us to maintain an open mind, and honor and respect the human rights of each othe...Folksonomies: secularism
Folksonomies: secularism
1 notes
notesDan Nerren, founder of Atheist Community of Tulsa, made history by being the first atheist to give an invocation at the Tulsa City Council Meeting on August 30, 2012.
29 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
Man, Universe-Builder and Maker of Over-Beliefs
Every man is a "Universe-Builder"; he is, likewise, a maker of "Over-beliefs".
Man's inner and outer necessities, real or imagined, have made him both a Scientist and a Philosopher. Neither Science nor Philosophy alone has been adequate. The material facts of the science of his universe have not satisfied; an "overbelief" or a "philosophy" in terms of which an interpretation of his life as a whole may be attempted has been a necessity. He has been in search not only of facts but of meaning ... 1 notes
notesIntroduction to a 1930's science book. The language is very interesting. The passage is very insightful in places, naive in others, but poetic throughout.
29 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
E-Prime Communication
Alfred KSCorzybski, the founder of the discipline of general semantics, thought that the verb "to be" could lead to confused thought, confused action, and even fascism. Because so much of fascism consists of vilification of the memy, and because so much of vilification of the enemy consists of calling hem subhuman, identifying them with the forces of evil, and so on, fascists might find it hard to write propaganda without "to be.
Korzybski considered the use of "to be" as an aipciliary verb...Eliminate "to be" verbs and further clarify your statements. A good cognitive tool for detecting propaganda.
13 OCT 2013 by ideonexus
The Clock, Icon of Science
Philosophers were always looking for new handles on the universe—new
similes, new metaphors, new analogies. Despite their scorn for those who
cast the Creator of the Universe in man's image, the theologians never
ceased to scrutinize man's own handiwork as their clues to God. Now man
was a proud clockmaker, a maker of self-moving machines. Once set in
motion, the mechanical clock seemed to tick with a life of its own. Might
not the universe itself be a vast clock made and set in motion by t... 1 notes
notesThe first icon to replace religous icons in Western culture.
02 JUL 2013 by ideonexus
Possibilianism
Eagleman was brought up as a secular Jew and became an atheist in his teens. Lately, though, he’d taken to calling himself a Possibilian—a denomination of his own invention. Science had taught him to be skeptical of cosmic certainties, he told me. From the unfathomed complexity of brain tissue—“essentially an alien computational material”—to the mystery of dark matter, we know too little about our own minds and the universe around us to insist on strict atheism, he said. “And we...Folksonomies: secular humanism
Folksonomies: secular humanism
1 notes
notesAnother flavor of secular humanism.
21 JUN 2013 by ideonexus
Cancer as a Microevolutionary Process
The body of an animal operates as a society or ecosystem whose individual members are cells, reproducing by cell division and organized into collaborative assemblies or tissues. In our earlier discussion of the maintenance of tissues (Chapter 22), our interests were similar to those of the
ecologist: cell births, deaths, habitats, territorial limitations, and the maintenance of population sizes. The one ecological topic conspicuously absent was that of natural selection: we said nothing of co... 1 notes
notesCancer evolves within us, growing by natural selection in rebellion against the environment of our body's ecosystem.
