Oakeshott on Religion, Science and Politics
Here is my introduction to the Zygon symposium on Oakeshott to appear in the March 2009 issue. This is an uncorrected proof – do not cite.
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Social Indentity
Colin McGinn poses a fair question: if Obama is half white why is he considered black? Colin is of course making the point that essentialism in these issues is not sustainable and this is reflected in the variety of very good responses to his question, perspectives that bring in fine-grained distinctions that would have never occured to…
Distributed knowledge and cognition
Once again a superb posting by Vitorino Ramos on his blog. Heretofore I’d not been aware of the existence of hobo signs or the gum election, both of which nicely illustrate the various conceptual lenses associated with distributed cognition/knowledge. I’ll definitely be invoking these ideas. Good stuff! I also notice another posting about Brian Arthur’s El Farol Bar…
Orders and Borders
This past weekend I had the good fortune to be able to attend the Second Conference on Emergent Order and Society held in Portsmouth, NH. The term “conference” doesn’t really characterise the format – it is more akin to a colloquium where the emphasis is on genuine discussion and conversation in an intimate group (18 in all)…
Computer Simulations in Social Epistemology
I don’t often plug workshops or conferences but here is one that appeals to my interest in social epistemology and computational intelligence. ************************** Workshop on Computer Simulations in Social Epistemology, Leuven, October 30-31 Centre for Logic and Analytical Philosophy The Workshop will be held in Seminar Room 2.41, Van Der Heuvelinstituut, 2nd floor (just to…
J.S. Mill Biography
A New Yorker piece by Adam Gopnik: more a précis than a review but nonetheless quite interesting. Though the target book is touted as an intellectual biography, one doesn’t get that sense, at least from Gopnik. A recent benchmark for an intellectual biography is Bruce Caldwell’s Hayek’s Challenge.
Overview of Stigmergy
Here is a slideshow giving an overview of the concept of stigmergy and its applications.
The Social Epistemology of Blogging
Alvin Goldman, the doyen of analytic social epistemology, has a draft paper posted on his website entitled “The Social Epistemology of Blogging.” What’s gratifying to me is that via Richard Posner (whom Goldman cites), Hayek, who I have argued is the social epistemologist par excellence, makes an appearance. I have recently argued that if Hayek was centrally…
The Intellectual Legacy of Michael Oakeshott
A rather belated plug for this book. The follow up is currently being edited.
Social Indentity
As usual, Dan Little has posted some thoughtful reflections on the multifarious tributaries that feed into the complex that is social identity. It brings to mind a recent correspondence I had with someone who was adamant that I call them by their “new” name (legally changed by deed poll), someone who I happened to know under their birth…
manwithoutqualities 