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Some time ago I wrote a post on human evolution and civilisation. It was one of my first contributions to my general reading blog. But I feel it is worth thinking about this morning, as, generally, this is what I tend remind myself of at Christmas: our immaturity as a species. Instead of fanciful tales…
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I find philosophy to be an incredibly controversial subject, one that is difficult to get a handle on. There is a value to philosophy, though I often struggle to understand it or place it. Perhaps this is because I lack a satisfactory definition of philosophy – a term which can represent so many different bases…
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MIT Professor and former Nobel Prize winning economist, Bengt Holmström, known mostly for his interesting work in contract theory, recently offered an intriguing analysis with respect to the reemergence of extreme and violent populisms in relation to the appeal for simplistic narratives and information streams. I found his comments especially striking, particularly in an epistemological context.…
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One may have noticed something distinct about the title of this essay, namely that I have enclosed the word “truth” in quotations. The purpose is to bring focus to the question of its status, not because the concept itself is in doubt, but because it appears, at least in many postmodern circles, to have undergone…
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The debate about which triumphs, free will or determinism, can on many occasions feel so unsatisfying. Over the years I’ve picked up or have come across quite a few pieces of literature on the subject, from historical and social studies to psychological research, neuro and cognitive science, and also various speculations within philosophy and physics.…
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The notion of causality – and the many longstanding debates about it – has interested me for some time. It is a subject that regularly resurfaces in my study of knowledge, and one that I continue to write about in my notebooks. In truth, it is no small or trivial matter – debates about the…
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[This essay is rough and unedited, and thus a work in progress. If in the future I find the motivation, I will add to the account and describe more of what it is like for me living with Asperger’s]. Some describe the experience of Asperger’s as like being an English person suddenly catapulted into Japan…
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If we take as a stated assumption, based off the growing body of science, that prejudice is pervasive – that human irrationality is, to put it philosophically, a central theme in the human struggle toward a rational society – I think one of the lessons is epistemological in form. Its basic reduction is this: instead…
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As far back as 4 million years ago and the period of Australopithecus afarensis, the standard model of hominin evolution offers valuable pieces of insight as to the importance of humanity’s great duel with nature. The current consensus, which is held by most scientists, places a significant moment in hominin evolution at the Great…
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New research has suggested that, for the first time on record, global farmland is in decline. Moreover, it has been estimated that, with respect to global farmland, “Every two years, an area roughly the size of the UK is abandoned”. How could this be? And what is the driving force behind this trend? The facts…