Moral dissention
Every generation somebody discovers a scientific framework to explain everything as far as one particular field or another is concerned. In The Moral Landscape we see neuroscientist Sam Harris devising a moral construct based on brain science. Reviewer William Sheridan suggests this might be a new ideology or belief system every bit as dogmatic as the various forms of fundamentalism it is intended to supplant. I don’t know if I’d go that far. Neuroscience and cognitive psychology have already helped the open minded find ever more open terrain to explore more freely. Yet Harris and other neurologically informed enthusiasts would do well to remember the silliness that the science of earlier eras now presents us with as Sheridan muses below. Today’s maps of the brain in action might eventually be no more credible than phrenology is to us. – DRO. The...
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I DON’T THINK SO
In this era of relativity, quantum mechanics, climate change, genome mapping, neuroscience, cognitive studies, systems analysis and complexity theory etc. etc. any notions about an absolute basis for figuring out the world seem presumptuous. So when my colleague, William Sheridan, sent me this review I was amused, but provoked in a good way by the paradox implicit in what he says. In a few sweeping sentences he dismisses the preponderance of the west’s canon of received wisdom. On the other hand, what would he replace this with? I would suggest he offers a very humble but honest perspective that few authors have the courage to put in writing. The Thinking Life by P. M. Forni; St. Martin’s Press, New York, 2011. Reviewed by William Sheridan The author and I agree that much of people’s time these days is consumed with trivial pursuits. ...
Read MoreIs it good to be content?
We do live in extraordinarily interesting times to over exaggerate the Chinese curse. On a day to day level life has never been more secure even in some of the most desperate parts of the earth. Longevity is increasing everywhere daily. Some of the worst banes of human history are fading into its dimmer annals. The really unpleasant reminders of disease, risk and mortality are the more irksome for their exceptional persistence in the face of so much progress. As we all know intuitively, these clear and totally desirable advances do not tell the entire story. Psychologists inform us that fear of loss is stronger than hope of gain. Sadly, our reactions validate the sentiments. These gut feelings are deeply rooted in atavistic irrationality, but irrationality that compels us to fight for survival. The evidence also tells us that...
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