my notes on anything related to philosophy
The deal of modernity is simple: it is the exchange of meaning for power. Throughout history, we have believed that we were part of a cosmic plan. This plan gave people’s lives meaning but placed strict limits on what they could do. Modern culture rejects this belief – the new belief is that life has … Read more
Science and religion are an odd couple. Ancient religious myths were helpful when they called people into action that was beneficial to them but were not objectively true. Modern science is a collective story, but it is not a myth – it is based on reality. Antibiotics will cure infections whether you believe in them … Read more
The World of Stories Humans experience the physical world, but also live in the world of stories (money, gods, nations, corporations). Technology in the next century will likely make these fictions more powerful. Our ability to tell stories started during the Cognitive Revolution 70,000 years ago – when we could talk about things that existed … Read more
Why do humans think they are superior to animals? Is There a Human Spark? Scientists have not found that humans or animals have souls, but scientists doubt the existence of souls not because of lack of evidence but because the idea of “soul” contradicts fundamental principles of evolution. This is why the theory of evolution … Read more
The Garden of Eden In the Garden of Eden myth, humans are punished for their curiosity and wish to gain knowledge. God expels them from paradise. But in the myth about Newton and the apple, nobody berates the scientist for his efforts – just the opposite. Teachers all over the world propagate the story of … Read more
Chapter 11: The Huxleyan Warning Our world has any prison-cultures who have structures similar to what Orwell describes. If one were to read both 1984 and Animal Farm, and then for good measure, Arthur Koestler’s Darkness at Noon, one would have a fairly precise blueprint of the machinery of thought-control as it currently operates in … Read more
Chapter 10: Teaching as an amusing activity Reading books and watching television differ completely in what they imply about learning. America is a case in point of what can be thought of as the third great crisis in Western education. The first was in fifth century B.C, when Athens transformed from an oral culture to … Read more
Chapter 9: Reach out to elect someone By bringing together in compact form all of the arts of show business—music, drama, imagery, humor, celebrity—the television commercial has mounted the most serious assault on capitalist ideology since the publication of Das Kapital. To understand Postman’s point here, it is useful to remember that capitalism, like science … Read more
Chapter 7: Now… This I should go so far as to say that embedded in the surrealistic frame of a television news show is a theory of anticommunication, featuring a type of discourse that abandons logic, reason, sequence and rules of contradiction. In aesthetics, I believe the name given to this theory is Dadaism; in … Read more
Chapter 5: The Age of Show Business The supra-ideology for all television conversation is entertainment. No matter what is depicted, the main presumption is that it is there for our amusement and pleasure. When news shows provide us with fragments of tragedy and barbarism, we are urged by the news anchors to “join them tomorrow.” … Read more