Interesting article here on how little consequence scientific theories (in particular here cog sci evidence for determinism) have on culture and decision making.
Author: Kleiner
Associate Vice Provost and Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Utah State University. I teach across the curriculum, but am most interested in continental philosophy, ancient and medieval philosophy as well as Catholic thought, all of which might be summed up as an interest in the ressourcement tradition (returning in order to make progress). I also enjoy spending time thinking about liberal education and its ends.
Science, thanks be to God
Here is an interesting article on how belief in God allowed scientific inquiry to get underway, and how all atheistic scientists still act as if God existed. They might think they can kick aside God and go about their science. But Novak reminds them of Nz – if God is dead, then reason is dead too. Upon this realization, “Zarathustra wept.”
Avery Cardinal Dulles, 1918-2008
Avery Cardinal Dulles died a few days ago. A Cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church, professor of religion at Fordham, and probably the best known American Catholic thinker in the world.
Obit here.
Finals Week Fun
Will was hoping to organize an end of finals week get-together. Pizza and a viewing of Monty Python’s ‘Life of Brian’ is what he had in mind, Friday evening. Here is one of my favorite scenes.
Post here if you are interested, and Will should post further details as he organizes it (room, time, etc).
Concert reminder and note on music and Plato
Reminder: Philosophy major and pianist Dan Tate, along with his friend John Price, will be giving a free concert in the USU performance hall on Saturday, December 6 at 7pm.
Dan sent this along to me, and I thought it worth posting. He raises several interesting philosophical issues, and for those in the Republic course, Plato (particularly in Book X) has addressed a number of these aesthetic issues.
Dan wrote:
A friend and fellow musician recently showed me this vulgar debasement of one of Chopin’s masterpieces. Chopin wrote this piece (popularly called the revolutionary etude) to express his deep anguish over the extreme violence that had erupted in his native Poland due to conflicts with Russia. This video trivializes (to say the least) Chopin’s profound grief and turns it into mere spectacle. The saddest thing is that most people wouldn’t even see anything wrong with this (hence why the performer is famous). One might say I’m being too dramatic, but I think this is a dangerous symptom of a much deeper epidemic. This video illustrates several of the dilemmas society faces today:
1) The lack of differentiation between the Sacred and the profane (i.e. everything becomes profane)
2) The fact that even the most transcendent art has been reduced to image, spectacle, and the almighty dollar
3) The gross and narcissistic emphasis on ‘originality’ and the individual (check out the stupid faces the performer makes trying to look profound)
4) The fact that most art (like Plato observed) appeals to the basest part of the soul and even great art when misconstrued follows suit.
Here is the first video, the performance I am berating.
Here is a second video, it is one of today’s great artists playing the same piece as it ought to be played.
USUPhilosophy 