An Interview with Cornel West

Eduarto Mendieta: But don’t you think that religion requires something like theology to articulate that experience of, to use Schleiermacher’s expression, “utter dependence”?

Cornel West: Yes, I think that theology is indispensable for religious communities to make sense of themselves and their changing views about the world in light of what is perceived to be revelation, but, at the same time, that theology can have a pretentiousness, or double pretentiousness, if it is acontextual as opposed to contextual, if it is foundationalist as opposed to antifoundationalist, or ahistorical as opposed to historicist, you see.

http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/?p=26570

On Humility

“The main lesson that I have learned over time is that a good scientist is a humble and listening scientist and not one that is sure 100 percent in what he reads in the textbooks. And this is a lesson also to students, be open.” - Dan Schechtman, Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, http://nyti.ms/rgo1nb

You love your iPhone

“Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) tests, my team looked at subjects’ brain activity as they viewed consumer images involving brands like Apple and Harley-Davidson and religious images like rosary beads and a photo of the pope. We found that the brain activity was uncannily similar when viewing both types of imagery…. In short, the subjects didn’t demonstrate the classic brain-based signs of addiction. Instead, they loved their iPhones.” - http://nyti.ms/raqhvY

Truthy Project

Wall Street Journal reports on The Truthy Project. “In an era of digital deception, scientists at Indiana University are using Twitter to investigate the nature of truth, lies and politics.” - http://on.wsj.com/nqIHEs

Where the Skills Are

“Today’s students need a stronger focus on teamwork, persuasion, and entrepreneurship; a better integration of liberal arts with technological literacy; and an emphasis on the social intelligence that makes for creative collaboration and leadership.” This month’s Atlantic on cities: http://bit.ly/rgpPGC

Lev Grossman's "From Scroll to Codex"

“And until I hear God personally say to me, ‘Boot up and read,’ I won’t be giving it up.” - Lev Grossmann, “The Mechanical Muse: From Scroll to Codex,” - http://nyti.ms/nX1254

Please Read

A note to students: “If you don’t find it in the index, look very carefully through the entire catalogue.” - Unknown, Sears, Roebuck, and Co. Consumer’s Guide, 1897

Dirty Secrets of Search

Dirty Secrets of Search: http://nyti.ms/evSWrV ”…just because we don’t talk about it,” he said, “doesn’t mean we won’t take strong action.” - “Matt Cutts, the head of the Webspam team at Google, and a man whose every speech, blog post and Twitter update is parsed like papal encyclicals by players in the search engine world.”

Google and the face of God

“I’m in San Jose and I’m going to visit Google. If you look up ‘Google’ on Google from Google, you see the face of God.” Conan O’Brien

Schwartz on Aristotle

Interesting TED talk by Barry Schwartz on the public political need for Aristotle's practical virtue: http://bit.ly/dXPs9a