Philosophy
Is there an inherent worth to variety? Is it a response to the modern notion of boredom that doesn't come about until industrialization gives us leisure and people trying to sell us things to do with our leisure time? The word "bored" doesn't appear in the English language until 1823 and "boredom" until 1853 (The OED has Dickens' Bleak House as containing the inaugural use of the term). Is variety intrinsically valuable or is it something that enterprising capitalists are trying to get us to believe in order to induce false needs to buy more and different? Or is there a truly human reason why we love -- and should love -- novelty? Is novelty a condition for growth, innovation, and progress? By experiencing a range of things, does it make us broader minded across the board? Should we seek variety to round out our character? Is variety the spice of life, or would that be cinnamon?
- False Needs, Technological Regress, And The Mechanical Pencil
As I wasted a perfectly good hour of vacation fixing the shorter of the short people's mechanical pencil -- a stocking stuffer he asked for and received -- Marx's notion of false needs came to mind, that is, the idea that in order to sell more...
- Citation
We always tell students that the purpose of citation is to make sure that those whose ideas we are using get the appropriate credit. But what really is the real reason we cite? Is it credit where credit is due? Or is it to make arguments by authority?...
- Pressing Your Love Button
We had a student present a senior thesis on reductionism in philosophy of mind and the love button example came up. TheWife and I went to a showing a couple weeks back of a Bangladeshi artist who has moved to the area. Very nice work in a wide variety...
- Bernstein And Silence
Discussed one Berstein quotation earlier in the week, but this one really gets me."Stillness is our most intense mode of action. It is in our moments of deep quiet that is born every idea, emotion, and drive which we eventually honor with the name of...
- Geeky Girl’s Heart
Well, maybe it might work. [Pay attention POSP stringer Tim.] "10 Ways to a Geeky Girl’s Heart" by Jenny Williams February 8th, 2010 Wired If you’re a geeky guy looking to romance a geeky girl, it doesn’t matter if you’ve been with her forever...
Philosophy
Is Variety the Spice of Life?
Is there an inherent worth to variety? Is it a response to the modern notion of boredom that doesn't come about until industrialization gives us leisure and people trying to sell us things to do with our leisure time? The word "bored" doesn't appear in the English language until 1823 and "boredom" until 1853 (The OED has Dickens' Bleak House as containing the inaugural use of the term). Is variety intrinsically valuable or is it something that enterprising capitalists are trying to get us to believe in order to induce false needs to buy more and different? Or is there a truly human reason why we love -- and should love -- novelty? Is novelty a condition for growth, innovation, and progress? By experiencing a range of things, does it make us broader minded across the board? Should we seek variety to round out our character? Is variety the spice of life, or would that be cinnamon?
- False Needs, Technological Regress, And The Mechanical Pencil
As I wasted a perfectly good hour of vacation fixing the shorter of the short people's mechanical pencil -- a stocking stuffer he asked for and received -- Marx's notion of false needs came to mind, that is, the idea that in order to sell more...
- Citation
We always tell students that the purpose of citation is to make sure that those whose ideas we are using get the appropriate credit. But what really is the real reason we cite? Is it credit where credit is due? Or is it to make arguments by authority?...
- Pressing Your Love Button
We had a student present a senior thesis on reductionism in philosophy of mind and the love button example came up. TheWife and I went to a showing a couple weeks back of a Bangladeshi artist who has moved to the area. Very nice work in a wide variety...
- Bernstein And Silence
Discussed one Berstein quotation earlier in the week, but this one really gets me."Stillness is our most intense mode of action. It is in our moments of deep quiet that is born every idea, emotion, and drive which we eventually honor with the name of...
- Geeky Girl’s Heart
Well, maybe it might work. [Pay attention POSP stringer Tim.] "10 Ways to a Geeky Girl’s Heart" by Jenny Williams February 8th, 2010 Wired If you’re a geeky guy looking to romance a geeky girl, it doesn’t matter if you’ve been with her forever...