Category: Uncategorized
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Truth, facts, and an injured bird
The difference between truth and facts is an important and much debated one, especially if we discount any notion of religious ‘higher’ truth. I therefore want to make the argument that, in a purely secular sense, it is possible for there to be a kind of truth which is not factual, and that this is…
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Populism or Democracy?
What is the difference between a populist government and a democratic government? Populism is a political doctrine that proposes “that the common people are exploited by a privileged elite, and which seeks to resolve this”. The underlying ideology of populists can be left, right, or centre but what is common to all populist leaders is…
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Truth
It is important to distinguish between facts and the truth. It is true that according to our rules of maths 2 plus 2 equals four, but while that is a fact it is clearly not a truth. It is conditional on the laws of mathematics, which can also be used to undermine it, so although…
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Marx and the Creative Economy
What do we mean when we say that Marx was an historical materialist? Marx begins with a material concept of the self divided against itself. He imagines the self as a stable but at first unsatisfactory identity, and like Hegel he calls the process of self identification and self dissatisfaction one of alienation which begins…
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Extracts from essays on Hamlet
From Hamlet and the Ghost The only explanation for Hamlet’s action, or lack of it, is that he doesn’t believe in the ghost. Once he establishes the facts clearly he has a clear intention to act, even though things don’t go according to plan. Hamlet is impossible to understand unless you understand the importance of this.…
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Being material
So, to your question… How can you NOT be materialistic? I think to make an answer to this easier you have to reframe the question. What is not material? And what is material? And then you get to familiar ground. Nothing is actually material. It just appears to be. I refer to the example that…
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How to be a religious atheist
People invent gods because they perceive the impermanence of things. However all honest believers in God admit to doubt and uncertainty. Religion is called faith because it is a name for a state of uncertainty. Faith is a response to impermanence. Faith says, we are not materialists, but we don’t really know what else there…
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A Science of Novels
I think it’s plausible to say that ‘fiction’ and ‘narrative’ as I defined them offer a kind of quantum theory for the novel. In fiction we might imagine the particles of memory travelling in wave form with unpredictable appearances and consequences. Indeed, to quote Brian Cox, in fiction, anything that can happen does happen. It is the peculiar…
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Quantum Memory
A few years ago I witnessed a small accident in a car park. A driver collided with a parked car, did some damage, then left. We dutifully wrote down the registration number and reported it to the police. A few months later I got a call asking me to confirm the make and colour of…
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Welcome to my blog. It is named after Dickens’ most interesting creation. Morally ambivalent characters have always been necessary in storytelling. These essays, I hope, explain why everyone who thinks about consciousness needs to understand the importance of swivelling. Like all blogs, this one has arranged itself in chronological order. If you would like some…
The Swiveller 