Nature, nurture and liberal values
Roger Scruton weighs in on the nature/nurture debate via a threefold review. (Image another Steve Pyke portrait). Roger Scrutonsteve pyke
Author: manwithoutqualities
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Andy Clark – “Do Thrifty Brains Make Better Minds?”
I’ve just come across this article by Andy with a follow-up here. Some recent work in computational and cognitive neuroscience suggests that it is indeed the frugal use of our native neural capacity (the inventive use of restricted “neural bandwidth,” if you will) that explains how brains like ours so elegantly make sense of noisy…
The neuroscience of happiness
Here’s an interview with Shimon Edelman whose The Happiness of Pursuit: What Neuroscience Can Teach Us About the Good Life has just been published. CognitionCognitive scienceEmbodied cognition
Patricia Churchland
Having missed Pat Churchland’s talk at NEI this past October, it was great that she was in town for a full week of speaking engagements not to mention interviews and other demands being made on her time (and she is supposedly retired!). It was a pleasure to meet her (finally!) having followed her work over the…
Enaction and Dance
Here is a recent paper freely available. And in the video below is my favourite (the greatest) dancer – she talks about her craft. Here are some previous dance-related/cognition postings. CognitionCognitive scienceEmbodied cognitionPhilosophy of mind
Mishima
One of my favourite philosophically orientated novelists is Mishima. I can’t attest to the reliability of this bio-sketch but it’s a start. There is not much scholarly literature on Mishima but here is an appreciation in, of all places, the British Journal of Psychiatry. Paul Schrader made a superb attempt at expressing Mishima’s thinking (insofar as…
Ignorance is Bliss
Here’s an article in The Economist that my colleague, Roger Koppl, who has done terrific work in the field of forensic evidence, alerted me to. The article mentions Itiel Dror who I’ve been in correspondence with though Roger. I know Itiel’s work through his co-edited Cognition Distributed. Here is his co-authored “extended mind” chapter. Forensic scienceScience in Society
Freedom of Speech
Given that issues of freedom of speech are in the news here is a philosophical take on the notion of Freedom of Speech.
Kitcher reviews Parfit
Philip Kitcher reviews Derek Parfit’s massive two-volume tome On What Matters. Derek Parfitethicspersonal identityPhilip KitcherReasons and Persons
Review of Steve Pyke’s Philosophers
On several occasions I’ve featured Steve Pyke’s work – Habermas of two posts back has been Pyked. Here is a review by a philosopher of Steve’s book. There is also brief mention in The New Yorker. The image featured above is of course Jerry Fodor. habermasJerry FodorPhilosophersPhilosophysteve pyke
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