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A Manchester historian has cracked the ‘Plato code.’ Writing in the journal Apeiron, and using stichometry, Jay Kennedy has apparently shown that the Republic is ordered by twelfths, following the 12-note scale, and that at each of these nodes, are located either consonant or dissonant ideas. The line numbers of the reassembled manuscripts of other… Continue reading Wanna crack the Plato code? Read Plato

One of the most striking details to read in Iain McGilchrist’s The Master and his Emissary for me, concerned the nature of the relationship between the two hemispheres of the brain. The exchange between them is essentially negative. Both can either fail to permit, by saying ‘no’, or permit, by not saying ‘no’, what the… Continue reading The brain's negative way

I’m still digesting Iain McGilchrist’s The Master and His Emissary, a book I heartily recommend if you enjoy some for the common themes of my blog. And thought I’d try a little analysis of this picture by Renaissance artist Domenico Ghirlandaio, An Old Man and His Grandson, by way of exploring some of McGilchrist’s themes… Continue reading The right distance of the right brain

At last! A book on neuroscience that is a thrilling read, philosophically astute and with wonderful science: Iain McGilchrist’s The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World. The running metaphor is the division between one worldview that is detail-attending, mechanistically-minded and self-interested; and another that is other-interested, whole-perceiving… Continue reading What the other half doesn't know

There’s something that makes me wary of Susan Neiman’s Moral Clarity: A Guide for Grown-Up Idealists. The basic theory is, in a way, unexceptional. The left needs ideals, to bridge the gap between what is the case in the world and what ought to be. She argues that in the modern world, such idealists must… Continue reading Moral clarity or breezy philosophy?

Out of Our Heads, Alva Noë’s new book on consciousness, is a must read for anyone interested in this debate. It’s subtitled ‘Why You are not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness.’ You can tell where it’s coming from by the reductionist Daniel Dennett’s endorsement: ‘Those of us who disagree with… Continue reading Changing your mind about consciousness

The question of whether we have free will is rising up the media agenda again, partly as a result of Jonah Lehrer’s new book, The Decisive Moment. Or there’s the chapter on the matter in 13 Things That Don’t Make Sense by Michael Brooks. That chapter stands out in the book as the one which… Continue reading Holding on to free will

The media, at least here in the UK, has gone LHC mad. (All this talk of a big bang: have editors realised there won’t be any results to report in this news cycle, and many to come?) But in celebration of a truly astonishing piece of apparatus, below is my Map of the Meaning of… Continue reading Map of the Meaning of Physics

So we had, here, something of Fromm on falling in love. What of the contrast he makes between that essentially romantic conception of love and his preferred form of love, standing in love? Standing in love differs because unlike falling in love, which is premised on the fact that the lovers are still more or… Continue reading Fromm on standing in love

Fromm’s classic, The Art of Loving, is full of arresting ideas, if a little dated now, what with his complementary idea of gender and poor understanding of homosexuality. I particularly like the distinction he draws between falling in love and standing in love. Falling in love is perhaps the default idea of love today. When… Continue reading Fromm on falling in love