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Slavoj éiûek reminds us that resistance is not futile (in the London Review of Books): The lesson here is that the truly subversive thing is not to insist on ‘infinite’ demands we know those in power cannot fulfil. Since they know that we know it, such an ‘infinitely demanding’ attitude presents no problem for those…
Vico’s most important hermeneutical insight is that human beings cannot be explained objectively, they can only be “understood.” The element of freedom in human nature resists the reduction to object of observation. Indeed, understanding is radically different from explaining. I can only understand and empathize with the personal life of another only because I have…
Sorrytaliatory Cycle: My mistake—no, yours—no, mine—no . . . “Excuse me, my unfocused words. I was flying blind. If you can find it in your heart . . . if you’ve got one. . .”“Shame,” by Randy Newman from the album “Bad Love” Decision theory recognizes that any yes/no question entails the prospect of being…
The education of the whole person requires more than just intellectual development, and service learning and other such programs are attempts to fulfill that aspect of education that brings persons into concernful relations with each other. There was a special report on national service progams at Time.com. But Lewis Buzbee has a corker of an…
Any theory in science is based on certain fundamental assumptions which one agrees to accept provisionally. These assumptions constitute the hypotheses of the theory. Thus, a hypothesis is invariably the starting point of a theory in science. The term is derived from the Greek, hypo: under, and tithenia: to put. So the word means that…
In this concern of Vico, to demonstrate that even the shadows of the most distant past may prove to have more truth than the exact sciences, we begin to sense the far reaching implications of his speculation. Let us explore briefly the most important of these implications. In the first place it is worth noticing…
Our cats woke me up at 5:15 a.m. Sunday…no, check that: at 4:15 a.m Sunday (clock change!). Thought I’d make the best of it by starting “Anthony Flew’s” new book (I will explain the “scare-quotes” in a moment). The book just jumped off the bookstore shelf. It is called: There is A God: How the…
You expect people to walk their talk. When they have for a while you gain confidence that they will continue to do so, that they’re as good as their word. With established rapport, the question of whether they keep their word doesn’t even come up. But when you haven’t known someone long or when some…
For nearly a decade, I regularly start the semester by asking students in my upper-level interdisciplinary general studies seminar what distinguishes the sciences, social sciences, and humanities from one another. Though they are intelligent soon-to-be-graduates of a fairly selective mid-sized private institution, Elon University in North Carolina, few can offer more than vague ideas of…
It is always an inspiration to read Freeman Dyson. I have learned much from his science, and still more from his deft ability to cross disciplinary fields, his literary flair, and of course, his readiness to consider religious questions in his cosmology. Witness his excellent essay, “The Varieties of Human Experience,” in the September issue…