Due in January of 2020. For more on Evan’s work see his website. There are conferences, courses, and celebrities promoting the notion that Buddhism is spirituality for the rational; compatible with cutting-edge science; indeed, “a science of the mind.” In this provocative book, Evan Thompson argues that this representation of Buddhism is false. BuddhismconsciousnessEmbodied cognitive…
A paper that caught my eye by Bernard Faure Bernard FaureBuddhismDalai LamaFrancisco VarelameditationMindfulnessnaturalismneuroscience
Reissue of a classic BuddhismCognitive scienceEleanor RoschenactivismEvan ThompsonFrancisco VarelaPhilosophy of mindsituated cognition
Here’s an obit in Vox but will compile and post other obituaries as they come out. New York Times Derek Parfit and Janet Radcliffe-Richards (not an obit) “With no other philosopher have I had such a clear sense of someone who had already thought of every objection I could make, of the best replies to them, of further…
Another pointed article from Nassim Nicholas Taleb. My view as follows. It is correct to say that any attempt to define religion is a problematic enterprise. For a start, Judaism strictly speaking, is not a religion in the same sense that Christianity is. Christianity historically, turns on belief as the criterion of identity, an emphasis on a theology.…
I chanced upon this video of Francisco Varela, clearly his illness at an advanced stage. I’m not a Spanish speaker so the substance of the video is lost on me. If you don’t know who FV is, here is an obituary by one of his closest friends and collaborators, the very excellent Evan Thompson. Running the video’s…
Damian Flanagan reports (in case you are wondering who Donald Keene is). Also check out Damian’s bio of YM. “The Sea of Fertility,” the leviathan that Mishima left behind, is arguably both the most important Japanese literary work written in the last 100 years and, by far, the least understood. Incorporating ideas from noh theater and…
Evan’s latest reviewed in the Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews beingBuddhismconsciousnessDreamingenactivismEvan Thompsonidentitymeditationmind-bodyneurophenomenologyneurosciencephenomenologyPhilosophy of mindselfsituated cognitionwaking
As improbable a pairing as one can find, Nozick’s essay reminded me of Feuerbach’s The Essence of Christianity (see extract after Nozick). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Robert Nozick "The Holiness of Everyday Life" in The Examined Life (1989, chapter 6, pp. 55-60). EACH AND EVERY portion of reality, the Transcendentalists said, when viewed and experienced properly, stands for and…
Yet another article on techno-ebullience. Alva NoëArtificial intelligenceBuddhismCognitionCognitive neuroscienceCognitive sciencecomplexityconsciousnessDavid ChalmersDerek ParfitDescartesdistributed cognitionExtended Mindphilosophical psychologyPhilosophy of mindRay KurzweilSingularityStephen Hawking
manwithoutqualities 