baalbek.org

A White Hosannah

Simon — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 23:04:07 +0000

Cut and paste poem based on Judy Golding’s BBC-broadcast reminiscences of her father, William Golding, on the anniversary of his birth. My cut-n-paste job was inspired by (and is, in a sense, a shortened version of) the excellent Scottish musician, artist and writer Momus’ version, here:

My version is below (click to play – audio only):

A White Hosannah – Simon Thomas (found poem ‘read’ by Judy Golding)

Huun Huur Tu live in concert!

Simon — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 23:12:30 +0000

Many thanks to my brother, Owen (a.k.a. Stanley Forbes), for introducing me to the great Huun Huur Tu, who are folk musicians from the Tyva Republic.

Here they are at the Philadelphia Folk Festival in August, 2006, demonstrating “sygyt” (or “whistle”), which is one of three different Tyvan throat-singing styles. The video is courtesy of tantsev and YouTube. It’s quite amazing, I think.

“Derek tastes of ear wax”

Simon — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 22:48:47 +0000

Wonderfully-titled and very interesting documentary on synaesthesia, courtesy of Google videos.

To see how this relates to the psychological/philosophical functionalist theory of consciousness, you might want to see this part of the essay I uploaded a while ago onto this site. If I’m right, synaesthesia might be a key way of testing (and refuting) functionalist theories of consciousness.

Note: the possible refutation itself comes from Jeffrey Gray et al’s series of empirical psychological papers from the early 2000s – you can get a flavour of these by typing in his name and “synesthesia” into a search engine. You could also read The Phenomenology of Synaesthesia by VS Ramachandran and EM Hubbard (April, 2003).

How important is metaphor to thought?

Simon — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 13:59:10 +0000

Katja Grace shares some brief but interesting considerations of the relationships between images and thoughts.

An introduction to the philosophy of AI

Simon — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 13:56:37 +0000

Anderson Brown has published a draft of a possible introduction to artificial intelligence, here.

Religion, “cognitive holes” and morality

Simon — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 13:53:14 +0000

Regina Rini reflects on the “flawed intellect” that treats ancient religious commandments as being, in themselves and without outside justification, infallible moral law.

How are we related to the world? Davidson v Anscombe

Simon — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 13:47:46 +0000

Brian Leiter introduces a discussion comparing direct and indirect knowledge of the world at his blog, Leiter Reports.

Teaching critical thinking through small-group discussion

Simon — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 13:44:41 +0000

Karla Pierce describes how she teaches the art of Socratic and “critical thinking” questioning, and links to some useful resources for P4C and other philosophy teachers.

On the irrelevance of moral prudery

Simon — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 18:31:04 +0000

Biologist PJ Myers condemns the moral witchhunts that lead to teachers (amongst others) being removed from their jobs not because of their (lack of) ability, but due to what they do or have done in their private lives.

You can also read a very interesting account, here, by an elementary school teacher who cannot find a job (despite her qualifications and experience) because of her past as a sex worker.

Where we might find objective moral truths

Simon — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 18:16:36 +0000

Chris Panza appears more than half-persuaded by the central argument for moral objectivism in Charles Taylor’s essay, Sources of the Self, which seems to turn on a phenomenological account of what it means to be human.