A portrait of Shakespeare from his lifetime? link
On not having read authors of the Great Books link
Video proof of Galileo's observations of gravity link
Sharing Don Quixote on its 400th anniversary link
The Role of Philosophy in Physics link
Existential Office (Existential Comics) link
Friday, May 22, 2015
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Readings for June
Monday, May 11, 2015
Apology for Raimond Sebond
Montaigne's father handed him a large book written by Raimond Sebond and asked him to translate it from the Latin it was written in. A short time later, his father died. Montaigne took the wish to translate it to heart and did so.
The book was on theology and it had gone in and out of favor with the church over time. It sought to prove various theological beliefs through rationalistic means. It had been attacked by other rationalists. Montaigne took it upon himself to defend the writing. (An 'apology' can be thought of as a 'defense'.) He defends Sebond from rationalistic attacks by suggesting that rationalism is always limited, especially in matters of faith. In short, his 'defense' also negates Sebond completely.
I'm not displeased with this approach, though I'm not entirely convinced either. I do believe that there are areas of theology and faith that can't really be grappled with by straight reason. However, I don't know that this is really a limitation of reason so much as just an area outside of its expertise. Mathematics won't tell me which cheeseburger tastes better, but that doesn't mean that it's useless.
This is a long piece and I don't know that I'd recommend it that highly. Montaigne is a wonderful and talented writer but, well, that's more clear in shorter pieces than this. In fact, I've got a Treasure of Montaigne that skips it all together. If you're interested, I thought that the pieces from Year One were stronger and more interesting.
The book was on theology and it had gone in and out of favor with the church over time. It sought to prove various theological beliefs through rationalistic means. It had been attacked by other rationalists. Montaigne took it upon himself to defend the writing. (An 'apology' can be thought of as a 'defense'.) He defends Sebond from rationalistic attacks by suggesting that rationalism is always limited, especially in matters of faith. In short, his 'defense' also negates Sebond completely.
I'm not displeased with this approach, though I'm not entirely convinced either. I do believe that there are areas of theology and faith that can't really be grappled with by straight reason. However, I don't know that this is really a limitation of reason so much as just an area outside of its expertise. Mathematics won't tell me which cheeseburger tastes better, but that doesn't mean that it's useless.
This is a long piece and I don't know that I'd recommend it that highly. Montaigne is a wonderful and talented writer but, well, that's more clear in shorter pieces than this. In fact, I've got a Treasure of Montaigne that skips it all together. If you're interested, I thought that the pieces from Year One were stronger and more interesting.
Friday, May 8, 2015
Monday, May 4, 2015
Author Timeline
BC
Euripides 480-406
Plato 428-348
Aristotle 384-322
AD
Augustine 354-430
Aquinas 1225-1274
Montaigne 1533-1592
Galileo 1564-1642
Bacon 1561-1626
Descartes 1596-1650
Newton 1642-1726
Locke 1632-1704
Hume 1711-1776
Kant 1724-1804
Melville 1819-1891
Dostoyevsky 1821-1881
James 1842-1910
Euripides 480-406
Plato 428-348
Aristotle 384-322
AD
Augustine 354-430
Aquinas 1225-1274
Montaigne 1533-1592
Galileo 1564-1642
Bacon 1561-1626
Descartes 1596-1650
Newton 1642-1726
Locke 1632-1704
Hume 1711-1776
Kant 1724-1804
Melville 1819-1891
Dostoyevsky 1821-1881
James 1842-1910
Sunday, May 3, 2015
Studying the Mind
Interesting article on a widescale attempt to replicate 100 different psychological studies. They were only able to replicate 39. I mentioned last week that I don't think we know much about the mind and how it works and this backs that up. The real question is, can that ever be improved?
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