Author: manwithoutqualities

Browse by:
epistemology

Knowing Our Limits

Nathan Ballantyne’s soon to be published Knowing Our Limits seems a promising read for those of us who write about issues of epistemic modesty, dispersed knowledge and complexity. Bounded Rationalitycomplexitydispersed knowledgeepistemic modestyEpistemologyNathan Ballantynesituated cognitionsocial epistemology

john kennedy toole

A Confederacy of Dunces: Stephen Fry on his decades-long struggle to adapt the most unfilmable book ever written

From The Telegraph, by Alexander Larman. As per the cover art, the edited book Theology and Geometry is in press. +++++++++ In 1969, the 31-year old, would-be author John Kennedy Toole killed himself. Frustrated and miserable that his magnum opus, a picaresque New Orleans-set comic novel entitled A Confederacy of Dunces, had failed to find a publisher,…

satchmo

Doreen Ketchens and Ricky Riccardi

Good to see Doreen &c. featured in the latest issue of OffBeat. I’ve spoken to her several times when I’ve come across her cnr. Royal and St. Peter. As she says, she is typically asked “‘What do you have new?’ So we try to do an album every year.” This article sheds much light on Doreen’s…

motorcycling

T. E. Lawrence: Patron Saint of Motorcycling

Lawrence of Arabia’s last ride. Steve “On Any Sunday/The Great Escape” McQueen would be at his side as will Henry Cole. And if you’ve every wondered about the origin of motorcycle helmets, here’s a nice article from Neurosurgery entitled “Lawrence of Arabia, Sir Hugh Cairns, and the origin of motorcycle helmets“. Would I wear a…

adam smith

Adam Smith: Eighteenth-Century Polymath

Adam Smith (1723-1790) was a polymath with several of his key concepts and theories either having modern counterparts and/or “enjoying” empirical support. Smith wrote about the origin and proper use of language, grammar, the history of astronomy and ancient physics, moral philosophy, music, dance, and poetry, and; economics. Despite the very wide variety of topics…