Jack Birner has this new article just published in Metascience.
Karl Popper’s The Poverty of Historicism after 60 years
Jack Birner has this new article just published in Metascience.
The Human Instinct: How We Evolved to Have Reason, Consciousness, and Free Will
This looks like it may well be a cracking read. I do appreciate Ken’s quality of mind as per his chat with the Gad Father.
The Semiotics of Eyewear
Another classic from The Chap this time, issue 15. I trust that you chaps are also monitoring the encroaching vulgarity that I noticed corroding Jermyn Street. Long live anarcho-dandyism!
Taleb on EconTalk
Russ Roberts chats with Taleb about his latest book Skin in the Game, my copy due to be in my hands tomorrow.
Bobby
Birthday boy in conversation with Terry Gross.
And he say, hey, Bobby, come here a minute. And I froze – came back. Hey, oh man, I didn’t see you. He said I loved the way you did the song. I think it’s fantastic. And I felt really good. I said oh, I’m glad you really like it, Mr. Bennett. And that was it.
Extended minds, predictive processes, and Andy Clark
Charlotte Rampling
On the eve of the annual (and in decline) luvvy virtue-signaling regress-fest, there still stands Charlotte Rampling who, along with Catherine Deneuve, have timeless and towering unalloyed class, dignity, elegance and, most importantly, critical faculties — unlike the pompous half-baked cause du jour “celeb” types who are superficially deep, but deep down, are superficial! This documentary, clearly done on Rampling’s terms, powerfully shows up the Hollywood fuckwittery of trying to arrest the aging process. For me Rampling’s most memorable performance is still in The Night Porter, and though pretty much universally decried in the day, at least it could be made, a time when transgressive art could exist side-by-side with bread and circus idiocy. Of course, she trusted her co-lead Dirk Bogard, who arguably had the greatest transgressive acting career of all and yet who started out as matinée fluff. Rampling really did/does have THE look and she is acutely aware of it — but she also has integrity and a finely tuned talent.
A Surprise for Pops
Today marks the 75th anniversary of Lucille’s surprising Pops with the purchase of 34-56 107th Street, Corona. The full story here. Each time I have the opportunity to be in New York City, a visit to Louis Armstrong House Museum is highest on my list of priorities as is a visit to the archives at Queens run by the one and only Ricky Riccardi. One of my favourite items in the house is this bible, a gift from Yacov Uriel, inscribed as per the photo below. (I think Yacov is to Pops’ right in the second photo). The positive and wise spirit of Pops really does pervade the house — it’s a good place to take refuge from the hustle and bustle of life if only for a few hours — and if you are NYC-based, you have no excuse not to attend one of the many wonderful events put on there.
The Metaphysical Cityscape in Iris Murdoch’s Under the Net
If you are inclined to the philosophical novel and one that is actually quite light-hearted such as A Confederacy of Dunces, then Iris Murdoch’s Under the Net would fit the bill. In much the same way as New Orleans is a “character” in CoD, so too is London in UtN. Jamieson Ridenhour discusses this aspect at The Literary London Society. Here too is the classic review of UtN by Malcolm Bradbury — and if you don’t know who Bradbury is, see his obituary in The Telegraph; even The Guardian views his legacy in a highly favorable light (do follow the links listed there). Here is a good write-up of the posthumous Liar’s Landscape in The Independent. Bradbury represented the dying ember of the cultivated academic literary mind, before the complete and utter degradation of a noble enterprise by the IYI postmodern charlatans. Bradbury was so well-placed to observe the, at best, “how to write” trend and at worst, the off-the-peg philosophical shallowness of those who now purport to be “English” dons.
To begin with, the ending is not so much moral as philosophical; if, in James, we recognise the need to allow each person his own independence, this is because to encroach upon human individuality is a moral fault. In Under the Net it is more conspicuously a philosophical fault. — Bradbury
Rory
Rory would have been 70 today. Bless!
manwithoutqualities 