This chapter asks: why does sex exist? why aren’t there more efficient ways to procreate? The most obvious reason to borrow genes is because you can benefit from the ingenuity of others as well as yourself. Matt Ridley, The Red Queen Sex invites mutations. A giraffe’s ancestor invented a longer neck, while another invented longer … Read more
Rousseau’s first literary success came to him rather late in life. The Academy of Dijon offered a prize for the best essay on the question: Have the arts and sciences conferred benefits on mankind? The First Essay Rousseau maintained the negative and won the prize (1750). He argued that science, letters, and the arts are the worst … Read more
The romantic movement had a taste for scenery and gothic architecture, they liked what was strange, ghosts, pirates, the occult sciences, mesmerism. The realists reacted against Romanticism. But the extreme emotions that are embraced by the Romantics are destructive, they include: anger, hatred, despair, outraged pride, jealousy. The kind of man that is a model for … Read more
David Hume wrote that faint images in thinking are ideas. Impressions are less faint but simpler and are from experience. Complex ideas need not resemble impressions such as abstractions . Among ideas, those that contain the original vivacity of impressions are memory and imagination. Cause and Effect We can only know cause and effect from experience, not … Read more
John Locke said that reason consists of two parts. First, an inquiry to what things we know with certainty. Second, an investigation into propositions which are wise to accept in practice even though they are probable and not certain. The grounds of probability are two – conformity with our own experience or testimony of other people’s … Read more
There are two errors when it comes to perceiving philosophical thinkers – the first is that theorists shape political movements, this is believed by people who are more influenced by books then events. The second error is when others seem to think that philosophies are nothing but direct manifestations of the doctrines of the leaders of … Read more
Lebinitz thought, like Voltaire’s Pangloss, that we live in the best of all possible worlds. He argued for God’s existence by using the ontological argument, which shows that the idea of a perfect being is possible. He wrote out a proof for this, including the quality of existence itself. Kant refuted it. The cosmological argument … Read more
Every female animal wants a mate with sufficient genetic quality to make a good husband and good father. Every male animal wants as many wives as possible, and to sometimes find good mothers and dams – rarely to find good wives. Genetic Sieves Males act as a kind of genetic sieve: only the best males … Read more
Spinoza was the most moral philosopher. He was betrayed by Leibnitz and excommunicated by Jews and Christians. Like Hobbes, Spinoza did not see right or wrong in state of nature. The Sovereign is untouchable. The state should dictate policy. But unlike Hobbes, democracy is natural, free opinion is paramount. Spinoza was most interested in religion and … Read more
In the fourth chapter of The Red Queen, Matthew Syed delves into the idea that adaptation is a never-ending process. He argues that in order to survive and thrive, we must be constantly adapting our strategies and methods to stay ahead of the competition. To illustrate this concept, he uses multiple examples from across different … Read more