http://www.theamericanscholar.org/spring-2009/
Evolutionary thinking has lately expanded from the biological to the human world, first into the social sciences and recently into the humanities and the arts. Many people therefore now understand the human, and even human culture, as inextricably biological. But many others in the humanities--in this, at least, like religious believers who reject evolution outright--feel that a Darwinian view of life and a biological view of humanity can only deny human purpose and meaning.
Does evolution by natural selection rob life of purpose, as so many have feared? The answer is no. On the contrary, Charles Darwin has made it possible to understand how purpose, like life, builds from small beginnings, from the ground up. In a very real sense, evolution creates purpose. ....
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Sunday, November 15, 2009
A Readers Summary
Since August, 30th, 2009, I have been rather busy. I have taken on new challenges, some I've been hoping for a shot at for a long time. Busy, of course is a relative term. We are all busy. But we each have loads we hoist on our shoulders that challenge us more so than the day before. We are all Atlas's. Sometimes its worth noting that as we heave the world on our shoulder....nearby, there are 6 billion other worlds being held on respective shoulders.
That said...I haven't forsaken my mental food. The following are just brief snippets of tomes consumed for the betterment of my own health.
Christopher Hitchens Letters to a Young Contrarian [No. 869], is as the title claims a series of letters. Written to a hypothetical young mind who is in want of path of reasoning. And in our world of spin and victorious history writing . "One must have the nerve to assert that, while people are entitled to their illusions, they are not entitled" Hitchens professes "to a limitless enjoyment of them and they are not entitled to impose them upon others." And if one has ever read a Hitchens volume being the antagonist is something he seeks, for as he aptly puts near the end of this little volume: "Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence.
Dan Brown's much anticipated sequel to The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol [No. 870], is a let down. Possibly because of exactly that, that it was much anticipated. A sad reality of success. Let's hope that his next one will be more original. Not much can also be said of Claude Izner's Murder on the Eiffel Tower [No. 871]. Suckered in by a bookseller involved in a murder mystery, I was sorrily disappointed in this little tale set in the late 19th century of Paris, France where murder is afoot in a poisonous sort of way. Not even the scenery of the early days of the Eiffel Tower were all that alluring.
The works of fiction that are extremely entertaining are Alexander McCall Smith's trilogy, Portuguese Irregular Verbs [No. 862], The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs [No. 863], and At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances [No. 866]. The trilogy marks moments in the life of Professor Dr Moritz-Maria von Iglefeld, the purveyor of all that is known in Portuguese Irregular Verbs, a weighty tome that was the result of the realization that as "[t]he crudities of the modern world were simplifying or even destroying linguistic subtleties." The professor would save the day. McCall's tales, however, are not serious treatises. The three look at the humour of academia. The irrationality of a specialist hanging his hat on one so minuscule point of knowledge, and that as such, honor and awards must befall such a brave intellectual. Academic narcissism is all too prevalent and McCall takes perfect aim with style and grace. I would be the first to find humour in certainty or alleged certainty; and would be the first to take a shot at my own (I just have to remind my self to un-clench the fist when I take the shot). These books are highly recommended; the convergence of events in "The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs" nearly resulted in peeing the bed as I rolled over laughing.
The polar opposite of the above is Chris Hedges latest volume, Empire of Illusion, the End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle [No. 0867]. This is a brutal book. A step back to see the flamboyantly frivolous western culture has become...and continues to be directed. And it is so hard to step back when we are travelling at the speed of light, in a ship constructed by "oligarchs, corporations, and a narrow, selfish, political, and economic elite...". The intellectual sphere, born out of the Enlightenment, creator of much of the essence of the moral and ethical structure we hope is there, is continuing to be shattered and torn apart. It is easier to flick the next channel with the remote; it is easier to forgo reason and intellectual rigour for a glittered cardboard world that we are sold. We want others to be devastated by personal mishap. We want the trust broken by the next scandal. And we want it NOW. On our TV and computer screens. We see no reason to remember the past. "Those who suffer from historical amnesia, the belief that we are unique in history and have nothing to learn from the past, remain children. They live in an illusion." And they are everywhere. If one were to pause for a second and take a step off the train for a moment, would we want our children to live in an world where functional illiteracy becomes closer to the norm than not; or the commercialization of all that is life, and even death has a place on 'social networks'? Or that the word intellectual becomes a pejorative? Can we enjoy and absorb this train ride if we were in control? Or are we just passengers, blindly absorbed in our own belly buttons, occasionally hoping that someone is actually at the helm? Empire of Illusion is a burning book, one that not too long ago in our history would have been just that; burned.
Jesus, Interrupted [No. 0865] by scholar Bart Ehrman is a book about contradictions and reading. The subtitle is "Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (and Why We Don't Know About Them)" and harbors the belief that most people read the Bible in a devotional manner, for that is how it is presented by church leaders. This is a linear reading, one page at a time, or at its worst cherry-picked for the flavor of the day. The historical-critical reading of the Bible, taught in secular seminaries and classes, is one of comparative analysis and literature, and in their original historical context. And there is much to say about the contradictions in the Bible (the separate creation stories for one). Ehrman is careful, however. "I should stress that scholars and students who question such passages are not questioning God himself. They are questioning what the Bible has to say about God." For Ehrman, like many other scholars, the Bible is a human construct, written by many, many authors over centuries of power, wars, and struggles. Ehrman's agnosticism, a growth from a very powerful believer in his youth, is tactful, and passionate. He does not want to offend those who hold the inerrancy of the Bible, but the only critical way to go beyond oneself is to be critical and thoughtful of your own footing. "For me" Ehrman says "it's just one of the mysteries of the universe: how so many people can revere the Bible and think that in it is God's inspired revelation to his people, and yet know so little about it."
That said...I haven't forsaken my mental food. The following are just brief snippets of tomes consumed for the betterment of my own health.
Christopher Hitchens Letters to a Young Contrarian [No. 869], is as the title claims a series of letters. Written to a hypothetical young mind who is in want of path of reasoning. And in our world of spin and victorious history writing . "One must have the nerve to assert that, while people are entitled to their illusions, they are not entitled" Hitchens professes "to a limitless enjoyment of them and they are not entitled to impose them upon others." And if one has ever read a Hitchens volume being the antagonist is something he seeks, for as he aptly puts near the end of this little volume: "Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence.
Dan Brown's much anticipated sequel to The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol [No. 870], is a let down. Possibly because of exactly that, that it was much anticipated. A sad reality of success. Let's hope that his next one will be more original. Not much can also be said of Claude Izner's Murder on the Eiffel Tower [No. 871]. Suckered in by a bookseller involved in a murder mystery, I was sorrily disappointed in this little tale set in the late 19th century of Paris, France where murder is afoot in a poisonous sort of way. Not even the scenery of the early days of the Eiffel Tower were all that alluring.
The works of fiction that are extremely entertaining are Alexander McCall Smith's trilogy, Portuguese Irregular Verbs [No. 862], The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs [No. 863], and At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances [No. 866]. The trilogy marks moments in the life of Professor Dr Moritz-Maria von Iglefeld, the purveyor of all that is known in Portuguese Irregular Verbs, a weighty tome that was the result of the realization that as "[t]he crudities of the modern world were simplifying or even destroying linguistic subtleties." The professor would save the day. McCall's tales, however, are not serious treatises. The three look at the humour of academia. The irrationality of a specialist hanging his hat on one so minuscule point of knowledge, and that as such, honor and awards must befall such a brave intellectual. Academic narcissism is all too prevalent and McCall takes perfect aim with style and grace. I would be the first to find humour in certainty or alleged certainty; and would be the first to take a shot at my own (I just have to remind my self to un-clench the fist when I take the shot). These books are highly recommended; the convergence of events in "The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs" nearly resulted in peeing the bed as I rolled over laughing.
The polar opposite of the above is Chris Hedges latest volume, Empire of Illusion, the End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle [No. 0867]. This is a brutal book. A step back to see the flamboyantly frivolous western culture has become...and continues to be directed. And it is so hard to step back when we are travelling at the speed of light, in a ship constructed by "oligarchs, corporations, and a narrow, selfish, political, and economic elite...". The intellectual sphere, born out of the Enlightenment, creator of much of the essence of the moral and ethical structure we hope is there, is continuing to be shattered and torn apart. It is easier to flick the next channel with the remote; it is easier to forgo reason and intellectual rigour for a glittered cardboard world that we are sold. We want others to be devastated by personal mishap. We want the trust broken by the next scandal. And we want it NOW. On our TV and computer screens. We see no reason to remember the past. "Those who suffer from historical amnesia, the belief that we are unique in history and have nothing to learn from the past, remain children. They live in an illusion." And they are everywhere. If one were to pause for a second and take a step off the train for a moment, would we want our children to live in an world where functional illiteracy becomes closer to the norm than not; or the commercialization of all that is life, and even death has a place on 'social networks'? Or that the word intellectual becomes a pejorative? Can we enjoy and absorb this train ride if we were in control? Or are we just passengers, blindly absorbed in our own belly buttons, occasionally hoping that someone is actually at the helm? Empire of Illusion is a burning book, one that not too long ago in our history would have been just that; burned.
Jesus, Interrupted [No. 0865] by scholar Bart Ehrman is a book about contradictions and reading. The subtitle is "Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (and Why We Don't Know About Them)" and harbors the belief that most people read the Bible in a devotional manner, for that is how it is presented by church leaders. This is a linear reading, one page at a time, or at its worst cherry-picked for the flavor of the day. The historical-critical reading of the Bible, taught in secular seminaries and classes, is one of comparative analysis and literature, and in their original historical context. And there is much to say about the contradictions in the Bible (the separate creation stories for one). Ehrman is careful, however. "I should stress that scholars and students who question such passages are not questioning God himself. They are questioning what the Bible has to say about God." For Ehrman, like many other scholars, the Bible is a human construct, written by many, many authors over centuries of power, wars, and struggles. Ehrman's agnosticism, a growth from a very powerful believer in his youth, is tactful, and passionate. He does not want to offend those who hold the inerrancy of the Bible, but the only critical way to go beyond oneself is to be critical and thoughtful of your own footing. "For me" Ehrman says "it's just one of the mysteries of the universe: how so many people can revere the Bible and think that in it is God's inspired revelation to his people, and yet know so little about it."
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