Speaking of physics . . . here is Tim Maudlin on The Nature of Reality blog.
The “odd couple” of science: do we have a quantum Soul?
Check out the “odd couple’s” (I suspect a professional euphemism for looniness) freely available update Consciousness in the universe: a review of the ‘Orch OR’ theory with accompanying interview (first video). I heard Penrose speak at Imperial College around the time The Emperor’s New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds and The Laws of Physics was released. I’ve never had the pleasure of hearing Hemeroff in person.
Externalism in Philosophical Issues
Several papers relating to extended mind, collective belief and extended knowledge in Philosophical Issues. Not one mention of Hayek . . . and minimal network or complexity theory. Still, a very useful collection and clearly the tide has turned in social epistemology towards notions of distributed knowledge which I’ve been claiming for years is the sin qua non of social epistemology.
What ‘Extended Me’ knows
WALKER PERCY WEDNESDAY – 31
The sun is shining, people live well, go about satisfying their needs and achieving goals, work at creative jobs, attend cultural attractions, participate in interesting groups. This is, by every calculation, as it should be. Yet it was on just such a day as this, an ordinary Wednesday or Thursday, that he felt the deepest foreboding. And when his doctor, seeking to reassure him, suggested that in these perilous times a man might well be entitled to such a feeling, that only the insensitive did not, etc., it made him feel worse than ever. The analyst had got it all wrong. It was not the prospect of the Last Day which depressed him but rather the prospect of living through an ordinary Wednesday morning.
Superfluous Neuroscience Information Makes Explanations of Psychological Phenomena More Appealing
This in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.
We conclude that the “allure of neuroscience” bias is conceptual, specific to neuroscience, and not easily accounted for by the prestige of the discipline. It may stem from the lay belief that the brain is the best explanans for mental phenomena.
What Fats Domino Means To New Orleans
Reasons, Causes, and the Extended Mind Hypothesis
Recent paper by Daniel Pearlberg and Timothy Schroeder
The World of Yesterday
“The greatest curse brought down on us by technology is that it prevents us from escaping the present even for a brief time. Previous generations could retreat into solitude and seclusion when disaster struck; it was our fate to be aware of everything catastrophic happening everywhere in the world at the hour and the second when it happened.” — Stefan Zweig
Zweig would be overwhelmed by the current state of affairs, as many now are. The World of Yesterday and The Royal Game (Schachnovelle) are my two favorite Zweig works. On the former see Nicholas Lezard in The Guardian (ignore all the marketing tripe of a year ago that accompanied the so-called revival of Zweig via a certain film).
On the latter check out this brief discussion:
If you’re are a German speaker then here is a decent rendering of this psychologically wrought novella — I have seen it with subtitles but I can’t find an online version — anyway, you really should read the novella first:
And then if you are inclined, check out a seminal academic paper by Chase and Simon entitled Perception in Chess.
Here is a discussion featuring the recent Zweig bio by George Prochnik called The Impossible Exile:
Kierkegaardian misreadings of Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer
Recent article freely available here.
manwithoutqualities 