People are eternally divided into two classes, the believer, builder, and praiser...and the unbeliever, destroyer and critic.
— John Ruskin, who died in 1900
- Almanac: Ralph Ellison on power
“Power doesn’t have to show off. Power is confident, self-assuring, self-starting and self-stopping, self-warming and self-justifying. When you have it, you know it.” Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man Continue reading Almanac: Ralph Ellison on power at About Last Night.... Read moreWe Have So Many Conspiracy Theories Because They’re Stories, And Stories Are How We Live
This is not great. “We are condemned to navigate the Space Age world with Stone Age minds; because of this inherent biological anachronism, man is the ape that imitates, tells stories, and morally condemns others.” – LitHub
Medieval Theories of Conscience, Peter Eardley.Revised:
- Internet Research Ethics, by Elizabeth A. Buchanan and Michael Zimmer.
- Perceptual Experience and Concepts in Classical Indian Philosophy, by Monima Chadha.
- al-Farabi’s Philosophy of Society and Religion, by Nadja Germann.
- Mysticism in Arabic and Islamic Philosophy, by Mehdi Aminrazavi.
- The Philosophy of Computer Science, by Nicola Angius, Giuseppe Primiero, and Raymond Turner.
IEP ∅
NDPR ∅
1000-Word Philosophy ∅
Recent Philosophy Book Reviews in Non-Academic Media
- On The Suffering of the World by Arthur Schopenhauer, edited by Eugene Thacker, reviewed by Michael Dirda in The Washington Post.
- Life After Privacy: Reclaiming Democracy in a Surveillance Society by Firmin DeBrabander, reviewed by Evan Selinger in The Los Angeles Review of Books
Remembering Director Mike Nichols
A vocal opponent of the auteur theory, which gives directors primary credit for the films they make, Nichols treated cinema as a fundamentally collaborative art and never sought to impose a uniform directorial approach on his work, which was unshowy, even self-effacing. “It’s not a filmmaker’s job to explain his technique, but to tell his story the best way he can,” he said. – Commentary
We Have So Many Conspiracy Theories Because They’re Stories, And Stories Are How We Live
This is not great. “We are condemned to navigate the Space Age world with Stone Age minds; because of this inherent biological anachronism, man is the ape that imitates, tells stories, and morally condemns others.” – LitHub
How Amanda Gorman Became Amanda Gorman And Poet Laureate For The Inauguration
Her precocious path was paved with both opportunities and challenges, an early passion for language and the diverse influences of her native city. Gorman grew up near Westchester but spent the bulk of her time around the New Roads School, a socioeconomically diverse private school in Santa Monica. Her mother, Joan Wicks, teaches middle school in Watts. Shuttling among the neighborhoods gave Gorman a window onto the deep inequities that divide ZIP Codes. – Los Angeles Times
21 Reasons for Hope in 2021
Fast Company: “We’re not out of the woods, not yet. One year after the first case of COVID-19 was detected in the U.S., more than 400,000 people have died and thousands of businesses have shuttered. On the political front, our democracy endured a months long campaign to subvert the presidential election, culminating in a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. But at Fast Company, we’re also looking to the future. Amid the horrors of 2020, we saw the world awaken to the power of new technology and radical ideas, from mRNA and BLM to satellite internet and sustainable fashion. So as a new president takes office with a mandate to build back better, we’re pausing to reflect on these lights in the darkness. Here are 21 reasons to hope in 2021…”
