Philosophical notes…
On a Philosophical Life
“Frank (which is how he was always referred to) has recently become the subject of an interesting book by David Ellis, ‘Frank Cioffi: The Philosopher in Shirt Sleeves.’ It gives a very good sense of what it felt like to be in a room with Frank. Truth to tell, Ellis’s title is deceptive, as I never recall Frank in shirtsleeves. He wore a sweater, usually inside out. He never had laces in the work boots he always wore, and strangest of all, because of an acute sensitivity to fabrics, he wore pajamas underneath his clothes at all times. The word ‘disheveled’ doesn’t begin to describe the visual effect that Frank had on the senses. He was a physically large, strong-looking man, about 6-foot-4. The pajamas were clearly visible at the edges of his sweater, his fly was often undone (some years later, his only word of teaching advice to me was ‘always check your fly’) and he sometimes seemed to hold his pants up with a piece of string. In his pockets would be scraps of paper with typewritten quotations from favorite writers like George Eliot, Tolstoy or Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, whom he revered.”
Simon Critchley, "There Is No Theory of Everything," The Stone - http://nyti.ms/1QvStlC. A lovely homage to a philosophical life.
On Privileged Conclusions
“The debate persists, too, because both sides are winning on their own turf—the lab tests continue to support authenticity, the textual analysis continues to suggest fraud. What is really at stake here is not the status of this one small fragment. It is, rather, what kind of information, and what kind of conclusions, are privileged: those from the data-driven world of the sciences, or those generated by the collective expertise of the humanities?”
"Why Scientists and Scholars Can't Get Their Facts Straight" - http://theatln.tc/1KF3GiZ
"The ongoing dispute over the authenticity of a scrap of papyrus from the ancient world highlights a larger question of how history is established."
On Panglossianism
“Those who think that the horrors of the nineteen-thirties and forties were eclipses of the sun, rather than an eternal darkness of the earth, are invariably mocked as Panglossian. But Dr. Pangloss, Voltaire’s fatuously optimistic philosopher, is an unfairly reviled man. The Enlightenment philosophers who insisted that the world could be improved were right. Voltaire was one of them. The mistake was to think that, once improved, it couldn’t get worse again. Voltaire’s point was not that optimism about mankind’s fate is false. It was that, in the face of a Heaven known to be decidedly unbenevolent, it takes unrelenting, thankless, and mostly ill-rewarded work to cultivate happiness here on earth, no matter what color the soil. That was the lesson Dr. Pangloss and his students had yet to learn. ”
Adam Gopnik, "Blood and Soil: A Historian Returns to the Holocaust" - http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/09/21/blood-and-soil
On Socratic Sandwiches
“What kinds of acts are made possible when we believe we know the objective truth? In what ways are our social practices, personal relationships, moral judgments, foreign policies, and political beliefs based on foundations of ‘knowledge’ that, when pressed, we can’t even satisfactorily define or demonstrate? What implications does this have, for how we see the world and our place in it, for how we relate to one another, for how we move through space and time? And why, actually, IS this kind of debate so frustrating? Why is critical thinking experienced as uncomfortable? Why, for example, did the Athenian senate vote to have Socrates LITERALLY KILLED for engaging people in debates like the sandwich debate? What were the charges they actually brought against him? They said he ‘turns the worse argument into the stronger’ and that he ‘teaches these things to the young.’ Socrates’ annoying arguments about definitions were felt to be such a threat to the existing power structure of ancient Athens that even some of his supporters’ attempts to get his sentence changed to lifetime exile were unconvincing, and he was democratically voted into death.”
"Is This a Sandwich?" Medium - http://bit.ly/1itdIZQ
On Human Technology
“JEFFREY BROWN: Thinking about what robots do or don’t do, or can or cannot do means to think about what it is to be human. Right?
JOHN MARKOFF: Yes.
JEFFREY BROWN: What is it that only humans can do?
JOHN MARKOFF: Well, I have been asked that question. What is it to be human? And I think the nature of humanity is found between the interaction that you and I have. And it’s actually something that makes me slightly hopeful, because even though we’re being surrounded with all this automation technology, there is the possibility that that interaction between you and I might actually become more valuable. And, you know, it might work out that way. That would be great.”
"Why Humanity is Essential to the Future of Artificial Intelligence," - http://to.pbs.org/1itcPjV. Interesting interview with the author of Machines of Loving Grace.
On Vanity
“RICHARD DAWKINS: They’re vulnerable. I also would like them to know the Bible for literary reasons.
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS: Precisely. We both, I was pleased to see, have written pieces about the King James Bible. The AV [Authorised Version], as it was called in my boyhood. A huge amount of English literature would be opaque if people didn’t know it.
RD: Absolutely, yes. Have you read some of the modern translations? ‘Futile, said the preacher. Utterly futile.’
CH: He doesn’t!
RD: He does, honestly. ‘Futile, futile said the priest. It’s all futile.’
CH: That’s Lamentations.
RD: No, it’s Ecclesiastes. ‘Vanity, vanity.’
CH: ‘Vanity, vanity.’ Good God. That’s the least religious book in the Bible. That’s the one that Orwell wanted at his funeral.”
"'Never Be Afraid of Stridency': Richard Dawkins' Interview with Christopher Hitchens," - http://www.newstatesman.com/node/200931
On New Romanticism
“Just once I’d like to have a college student come up to me and say, ‘I really wanted to major in accounting, but my parents forced me to major in medieval art.’ That probably won’t happen... But you see a counterreaction setting in. You see, here and there, signs of a new romanticism... I’m not sure we’re about to be overrun with waves of Byronic romantics, but we have been living through an unromantic period and there’s bound to be a correction. People eventually want their souls stirred, especially if the stuff regarded as soft and squishy turns out in a relational economy to be hard and practical.”
David Brooks, "The New Romantics in the Computer Age" - http://nyti.ms/1hGhL4e
On Coddling and Critical Thinking
“There’s a saying common in education circles: Don’t teach students what to think; teach them how to think. The idea goes back at least as far as Socrates. Today, what we call the Socratic method is a way of teaching that fosters critical thinking, in part by encouraging students to question their own unexamined beliefs, as well as the received wisdom of those around them. Such questioning sometimes leads to discomfort, and even to anger, on the way to understanding.”
"The Coddling of the American Mind," - http://theatln.tc/1IXIRdd
Watson Goes to University
“Deakin University will be the first university in the world to utilise IBM Watson to enhance the quality of the student experience, developing with IBM a breakthrough system that will transform the way students get advice and answers to questions... Watson will answer questions about courses but will also be able to help guide students through the maze of decision-making about their future careers to enhance their employment opportunities. Over time every student who asks Watson a question can expect tailored information and personalised advice and information based on their individual profile.”
IBM's website suggests that this will be "a new partnership that aims to exceed students’ needs." It's at the early stages of development, but if successful, that may well be an understatement.
On Software
“Every aspect of the global industrial social order is being transformed by the impact of software. This has happened before of course: money and written language both transformed the world in similarly profound ways. Software, however, is more flexible and powerful than either.”
"A New Software Technology," - http://breakingsmart.com/season-1/a-new-soft-technology/