A terrific documentary on the life and times of Walter Anderson. A most philosophical, mystical and literary mind. Check out the trailer.
Riopelle and LA LEYENDA cheese
With friends of mine posting reports of their gastronomic adventures in Montreal I thought I’d begin to counter with this wonderful cheese. I will be reporting back from Montreal with my own food porn in a few weeks. Followed up by La Leyenda, Spain being the other perhaps most important gastromic destination on my bucket list.
Who’s Next
One of the great albums of the R+R era released on this day in ’71. Rather than posting the usual, I’ve gone for this very tongue in cheek Entwhistle song — knowing what I do about Entwhistle the song must have some basis in his own marital problems. Much like John Paul Jones’s contribution to Led Zep, one cannot over-estimate the value of the “Ox”: his bass playing of course was one of the best in the business and his vital contribution of the brass really lifted so many of the band’s songs, fully realized in Quarophenia — the one album that tops even Who’s Next. Check out the best documentary on The Who (trailer below) — very frank, very articulate with great info about the “fifth” band member (and character) Kit Lambert and very early footage that Daltrey had found some 50 years on.
Philosophical Approaches to Social Neuroscience
Phil Robbins and I are the action editors for the following “in Press” papers.
Will Retributivism Die and Will Neuroscience Kill It?
Iskra Fileva, Jonathan Tresan
Reuse and body-formatted representations in simulation theory
Shaun Gallagher
Would a Neuroscience of Violence Aid in Understanding Legal Culpability?
Valerie Gray Hardcastle
Beyond sensorimotor segregation: On mirror neurons and social affordance space tracking
Maria Brincker
Looking beyond the brain: Social neuroscience meets narrative practice
Daniel D. Hutto, Michael D. Kirchhoff
Can you really upload your mind?
Radio discussion on ABC’s The Philosopher’s Zone
Self/less— a film currently doing the rounds—entertains the idea of digital immortality. It might be a work of science fiction but what it portrays is gaining serious traction in the real world. A number of philosophers, neuroscientists, and assorted futurists believe that by mid century a safe form of mind transfer will be achieved. But beware: there might a fly in the grey matter. In fact you’d want to be sure of your assumptions about brain, mind and consciousness before you throw the switch.
‘Discipline and Interference’: Ruskin’s Political Economy, Natural Law, and the Moral Disorder of Victorian England
Check out my chum’s freely available article.
WALKER PERCY WEDNESDAY 47
He sat down under the cistern and sniffed a handful of soil. The silence was disjunct. It ran concurrently with one and did not flow from the past. Each passing second was packaged in cottony silence. It had no antecedents. Here was three o’clock but it was not like three o’clock in Mississippi. In Mississippi it is always Wednesday afternoon, or perhaps Thursday. The country there is peopled, a handful of soil strikes a pang to the heart, dêjà vus fly up like a shower of sparks. Even in the Southern wilderness there is ever the sense of someone close by, watching from the woods. Here one was not watched. There was no one. The silence hushed everything up, the small trees were separated by a geometry of silence. The sky was empty map space. Yonder at Albuquerque forty miles away a mountain reared up like your hand in front of your face.
This is the locus of pure possibility, he thought, his neck prickling. What a man can be the next minute bears no relation to what he is or what he was the minute before.
Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology
Just published — coauthored by the current dean of ontology studies, Barry Smith. Really worth checking out Barry’s youtube channel.
Armstrong’s New Orleans
This from OffBeat — yep, especially sad about the Karnofsky store!
It’s hard to believe, but when it comes to landmarks from Louis Armstrong’s childhood and his teen years in New Orleans—the years where he learned to play and he formulated his wisdom, ideas, and the great humanity that drove him for the rest of his life—there is almost nothing left: just parking lots and ugly, mid-’60s, municipal, urban architecture.
Dave Hoekstra interviews Curtis Mayfield’s wife Altheida
The very excellent Dave Hoekstra discusses the life and career of late soul legend Curtis Mayfield with his wife Altheida, who shares her memories of the man and the artist, his roots in Chicago, his philosophy towards music, and plans for a celebration observing the 60th anniversary of Mayfield starting his music career.
manwithoutqualities 