30 MAY 2016 by ideonexus
Repressive Desublimation
It refers to the kind of soft authoritarianism preferred by wealthy, consumer culture societies that want to repress political dissent. In such societies, pop culture encourages people to desublimate or express their desires, whether those are for sex, drugs or violent video games. At the same time, they’re discouraged from questioning corporate and government authorities. As a result, people feel as if they live in a free society even though they may be under constant surveillance and forc...Folksonomies: rhetoric oppression
Folksonomies: rhetoric oppression
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notes
notes19 JAN 2016 by ideonexus
Themes in "Oh! You Pretty Things"
The resonance of “Oh! You Pretty Things” comes from how it uses these Nietzschean SF trappings as a metaphor for how a generation regards its successor with longing, fear and resentment (never more so than with the so-called Greatest Generation and their children the Boomers), or, even closer to home, how a parent can regard his or her children. Once you become a parent, you lose precedence in your own life—your own needs and desires are shunted aside, and you spend years as servant and...
1 08 NOV 2013 by ideonexus
The Mechanic's Wisdom
The Mechanic's Wisdom.
Probably the most characteristic attitude of the mechanic toward the forces and materials with which he deals is unquestioning acceptance of the fact that he cannot change or anywise modify the laws of nature or the qualities of materials.
The mechanic, like the rest of us, wants to accomplish a multitude of purposes. Having determined upon the object of his desires, be it a machine to do something, or a change in the location of physical things, he proceeds upon th... 1 notes
notesAn insightful and empirical perspective of our place in the Universe and our potential.
19 APR 2013 by ideonexus
The Birth of Political Science in Ancient Greece
With the Greeks, education was an important part of polity. Men were formed for
their country, much more than for themselves, or their family. This principle can only
be embraced by commonities little populous, in which it is more pardonable to
suppose a national interest, separate from the common interest of humanity. It is
practicable only in countries where the most painful labours of culture and of the arts
are performed by slaves. This branch of education was restricted almost entirely t...Folksonomies: history political science
Folksonomies: history political science
1 notes
notesIt is also the study of human beings.
02 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
William Lawrence on the Need for Free Science
Lawrence eventually went on to broaden his attack. Science, he argued, had an autonomous right to express its views fearlessly and objectively, without interference from Church or state. It must avoid ‘clouds of fears and hopes, desires and aversions’. It must ‘discern objects clearly’ and shun ‘intellectual mist’. It must dispel myth and dissipate ‘absurd fables’.19 The world of scientific research was wholly independent. ‘The theological doctrine of the soul, and its separ...Folksonomies: freedom scientific integrity
Folksonomies: freedom scientific integrity
1 notes
notesScience must operate without fear of oppression or reaction from authorities.
01 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
We are Part of the Cosmos
Charles Darwin's insights into natural selection have shown that there are no
evolutionary pathways leading unerringly from simple forms to Man; rather,
evolution proceeds by fits and starts, and most life forms lead to evolutionary
dead-ends. We are the products of a long series of biological accidents. In the
cosmic perspective there is no reason to think that we are the first or the last or
the best.
These realizations of the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions are profound –
and, to s... 1 notes
notesAs it is, not as we wish it to be.
07 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
When Babies Develop a Theory of Mind
By the time babies are about one-and-a-half yearsrs old, they start to understand the nature of these differences between people and to be fascinated by them. Again we can demonstrate this systematically. Alison and one of her students, Betty Repacholi, showed babies two bowls of food, one full of delicious Goldfish crackers and one full of raw broccoli. All the babies, even in Berkeley, preferred the crackers. Then Betty tasted each bowl of food. She made a delighted face and said. 'Yum," to...
1 The "terrible twos" is a period of conflict because the infant is developing a theory of mind and they are learning that other people do not share the same likes and dislikes as themselves; therefore, they test these differences.
08 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
Discard Bad Ideas
the hard but just rule is that if the ideas don't work, you must throw them away. Don't waste neurons on what doesn't work. Devote those neurons to new ideas that better explain the data. The British physicist Michael Faraday warned of the powerful temptation
to seek for such evidence and appearances as are in the favour of our desires, and to disregard those which oppose them . . . We receive as friendly that which agrees with [us], we resist with dislike that which opposes us; whereas the...Folksonomies: empiricism peer review
Folksonomies: empiricism peer review
1 notes
notesIt is difficult to do, but we must put our ideas up for criticism.
23 MAR 2011 by ideonexus
1973 Humanist Manifesto II - Ethics
Ethics
THIRD: We affirm that moral values derive their source from human experience. Ethics is autonomous and situational needing no theological or ideological sanction. Ethics stems from human need and interest. To deny this distorts the whole basis of life. Human life has meaning because we create and develop our futures. Happiness and the creative realization of human needs and desires, individually and in shared enjoyment, are continuous themes of humanism. We strive for the good life,... 1 notes
notesSection on Ethics from the Humanist Manifesto.
08 JAN 2011 by ideonexus
The Samurai Reject Elaborately Ornate Religious Displays
The leading principle of the Utopian religion is the repudiation of the doctrine of original sin; the Utopians hold that man, on the whole, is good. That is their cardinal belief. Man has pride and conscience, they hold, that you may refine by training as you refine his eye and ear; he has remorse and sorrow in his being, coming on the heels of all inconsequent enjoyments. How can one think of him as bad? He is religious; religion is as natural to him as lust and anger, less intense, indeed, ...Folksonomies: centrism voluntary nobility
Folksonomies: centrism voluntary nobility
Like over-eating or alcoholism, the Samurai view ornate religion as a form of gluttony, as they also see religion accepted with an uncritical eye.
