biophilia + technophilia

This Earth Days excerpt is a good prequel to the last shuttle launch. Loving life and loving the possibilities technology affords are not incompatible. Native and innovative wisdom are natural allies. "We choose to go the moon, and do the other things..."

Rusty Schweikert: "That phrase 'Mother Earth' has real meaning... Where are we going?"
It's our choice.

Watch the full episode. See more American Experience.

That's the way it is

Whole Earth Discipline 9, Afterword


1. What's "live value"? What in particular do we need to cure our ignorance about?


2. What's DISCOVR? What are the "most tempting" geoengineering schemes? What ancient technique invented by the Amazon Indians is under consideration?


3.Does Al Gore like the idea of "solar shades"?


4. What's the Turquoise movement? How do Turqs relate to Gaia, compared with Greens?


5. What's the Golden Rule of Time? What's Freeman Dyson's definition of "sustainable"? What did A.N. Whitehead say about the future? Why is James Lovelock "cheerful"? How has he "softened his sense of alarm"?


6. What is Brand's concluding statement? 

Watch the full episode. See more American Experience.

a hunger for philosophy

Existentialcomix


Logicomix 5-6, PW -128
1. (Entracte) What philosophical confusion does Aeschylus suggest to Apostolos?

2. What was Russell's vision of heaven?


3. What did young Wittgenstein say to Russell (at their first meeting)about facts and certainty, and (later) about mathematical reality? What does Russell later say about the habit of analyzing everything? What part of himself did he say Wittgenstein brought to the surface?

4. In what did Russell find "redemption" from the fear of dying? How did it affect his interest in the philosophy of mathematics? What "immunized" him against nationalistic war-mongering? What did war teach Russell about language? What does it (finally) teach Wittgenstein about meaning? What does he tell Russell is the "real issue" beyond thought and language?

5. (Ch.6) What did Russell fear would be the outcome of the collapse of the pre-war world's values? Why did he dislike Wittgenstein's view that logic results only in tautologies? What unexpected joy had philosophy not prepared Russell for?

6. What did the Vienna Circle credit Russell with helping to make possible? Who pointed out to him his "failure"? What will there "always be"? How did Wittgenstein think the Vienna Circle misunderstood him? What was its "tragic final act"?

7. How does Russell characterize his stance towards doubt and certainty? What does he conclude about "Leibniz's dream"? What is the message of his "cautionary tale"? What position does he come to share with Wittgenstein?

8. What, according to Christos, is "our prime hope for peace, democracy, and freedom"?


9. Heidegger said he was a ___________ like his teacher Husserl, but most consider him an ____________ like Sartre. His invented term for persons was _______, or "there-Being."

10. Jean-Paul Sartre said ______ precedes ________, leaving us free to invent ourselves. Those who deny their freedom are guilty of ___ _____.

11. Simone de Beauvoir opened up a new wave of ________ that questioned philosophy's commitment to women's freedom. She wrote __________, one of the most influential books of the 20th century.

12. (T/F) "One must consider Sisyphus happy," according to Albert Camus.

13. According to Postmodernists, _______ no longer exists.

14. ___ ___ philosophy shows a continuing need and hunger for philosophy.

The point, Calvin (and Calvin)... the point is to live.

I've got a secret

A colleague admitted, this afternoon, that he'd only recently learned of "The Secret." But he wanted urgently to know: What is it? Well, it's the "law of attraction":

Thoughts have physical power. Thinking about something is the way to get it. If you want to stay poor, keep obsessing about your poverty; if you want to be rich, imagine yourself rich.

I'm sure there's got to be more to it than that, but how much more? We'll see, in my Fall course "Happiness and the Secret of Life."

We'll explore other "secrets" too, on our way to deciding if there really are any secrets worth paying for. Candidates include DNA, natural selection, attention, compassion, selflessness, diversion, and low expectations.

But I'm still partial to "42" myself.

there's no place like home

Really enjoyed Trent's report on our wasteful ways with food, and Colin's on Peak Oil and how hard it's going to be to break our addiction before "the well-oiled machine runs dry." The bottom line in both cases seems to be:

We have too much to be pessimistic about, but I reiterate and "second" Stewart Brand's repudiation of cultural pessimism. The Summer Reading challenge, again: 

Read Blessed Unrest and try to sustain a pessimistic mood, I dare you.

I'm pretty sure you can't, especially if you pass the “Where You At” bio-regional quiz and prepare to expand your sense of home. There's no place like it.

Back to the garden

Whole Earth Discipline 7-8

1. What's Stewart Brand's "gross oversimplification" about romantics, scientists, & engineers? How is it challenged by Paul Hawken? What's the difference between historical and cultural pessimism?

2. Does Brand agree that we have to clean up Earth before we can leave it? What does he think of consistency, ideology, and "solidarity"? Of optimism?

3. What is Biomimicry? What are its basic principles?

4. Was FDR a hedgehog or a fox?

5. What's "bogus" about The Education of Little Tree, The Teachings of Don Juan, etc.? What does Brand claim to have learned from native Americans? Gary Snyder? Kat Anderson? What "primer on how to harness an ecosystem" does Brand recommend?

6. What are the two harsh truths of human prehistory? What is its encouraging lesson?

7. What is the "growing realization" about how to think of protected areas? How does Brand differ with Lovelock over managing nature? Must we (on Brand's view) choose between either tending the wild or leaving it alone? What is a "working wilderness"?

8. What does ecology lack, as a predictive science? What still-hypothetical device might turn it into one?

9. What makes you a native? How well do you score on Brand's "reinhabitory quiz"?

Earth is home

Earth Day is every day. Yann Arthus-Bertrand at TED:

This Earth is four and a half billion years old. These plants, several hundred million years old. And we humans have been walking upright for only 200 thousand years... For the past 30 years I've been closely watching the earth and its dwellers from high up in the sky.Our life is tied to the wellbeing of our planet.We depend on water, forests, deserts, oceans.Fishing, breeding, farming are still the world's foremost human occupations. And what binds us together is far greater than what divides us. We all share the same need for the earth's gifts. The same wish to rise above ourselves, and become better. And yet we carry on raising walls to keep us apart.

Today our greatest battle is to protect the natural offerings of our planet. In less than 50 years we've altered it more thoroughly than in the entire history of mankind. Half of the world's forests have vanished. Water resources are running low.Intensive farming is depleting soils. Our energy sources are not sustainable. The climate is changing. We are endangering ourselves. We're only trying to improve our lives. But the wealth gaps are growing wider. We haven't yet understood that we're going at a much faster pace than the planet can sustain. We know that solutions are available today. We all have the power to change this trendfor the better. So what are we waiting for?

Happy Earth Day

In honor of Earth Day 2011, here's 350.org's Bill McKibben. "The only thing that a morally awake person can do when the worst thing that’s ever happened is happening is try to change those odds."

"turtles all the way down"

Logicomix 3-4


1. What is the principal habit of logicians?


2. What did Frege say was the aim of logic? What kind of language did he want to create? What did Russell think Cantor had discovered? What did Russell discover about Cantor?


3. What did the Eiffel Tower symbolize to Russell? Who did he encounter in Paris?


4. What was subverted by non-Euclidean geometries?
5. "Ignorabiumus" means what?


6. How do sets relate to numbers? What is Russell's paradox? What form of reference invites paradox?

7. What was Russell's collaborative project with A.N. Whitehead? What famous principle of simplicity did Russell endorse? What did he call "the right way to philosophize"?

8. What did Russell mean by his turtle analogy? What irony was too hard for Russell to bear?

wolves

Meghan's report raised our consciousness on the need to protect and preserve wildlife, wolves in particular. They were just knocked off the endangered species list last week. The defenders.org site she recommends looks to be an excellent resource.

There are at least 10 Reasons We Need Wolves... 

And we recall Eagle Man's wolf chapter, "One Among Many":

Wolf is a misunderstood animal. Yes, it is a predator; but, as I must remind my two-legged friends ,we are too... Like wolf scouts, those of us who know the dangers ahead must take responsibility for warning and teaching others. Those of us who see the signs of environmental imbalances on Mother Earth must not be silent as if we were one alone... Like wolves, we must work together to survive...

We were talking about philosophizing with children yesterday, and I noted the work of Chris Phillips in this area. Please pass this along to any educators, school librarians, or administrators you think might be interested.

Picture a group of children gathered for a regular meeting to talk about their thoughts and concepts of the world. They follow a method of questioning inspired by the philosopher Socrates. You’ve just imagined a Philosophers’ Club. In a nutshell, the Socratic method of discourse is a way for children to seek and find insights and truths by their own lights. Socrates believed that we only discover what we truly think about something by engaging in constructive and empathetic discourse with others.

Philosophers' Clubs invariably help members nurture their ability in "the fourth R" the ability to reason in breathtakingly imaginative and constructive ways. As a result, children are more highly motivated to develop their abilities in the traditional three Rs... philosopher.org 

"Natural Spirit"

Whole Earth Discipline 5-6

1. What's the difference between GM & GE? Who eats GM food? What's the health impact?

2. What false assumption does Peter Raven say we make when we object to GE as bizarre? What is agriculture to an ecologist or a Gaian? Does GM threaten biodiversity?

3. What does GE have in common with cell phones?

4. Who invented the concept of coevolution?

5. What's been the main result of antibiotech lobbying? What's wrong with the Precautionary Principle?

6. What would be the impact of a "genomics of Gaia"?

7. How long has genetic engineering been "standard practice," according to Lynn Margulis? What impresses Craig Venter about microbes? What's Freeman Dyson's prediction for the future of biotech?

8. What's wrong with "Natural American Spirit" cigarettes?

9. How is "technoparanoia" self-fulfilling?

10. What are "the main news items of this book"?

logicomix

Logicomix 1-2


1. What quest is this graphic novel about? When does the story begin? Why did the authors choose this genre? Why did they choose to write about Bertrand Russell?


2. What does "manga" mean in Greek?

3. What is the topic of Russell's speech? He compares what to being "your brother's keeper"?


4. Who was Russell's grandfather? What did his grandmother love? What was young Russell's "greatest mystery"? What overcame his fear?
5. (T/F) The "forbidden books" in his grandfather's library included all nature and philosophy books?


6. What was "magic" about Russell's first day with his math tutor?
7. What showed Russell the "only way towards reality"? What was it? Where did its power come from?


8. What "terrible secret" did he learn about his parents?
9. What moment ignited Russell's life? How did the "hope of Reason" save it? Where did he study? What did he discover there? What did he see in nature?


10. What philosophers' trait did he wish mathematicians would emulate? How did he wish philosophers were more like mathematicians?


11. What does "calculemus" mean? How did Russell hope to clarify philosophical thinking?
12. Which philosopher's dream revealed Russell's vocation to him? What was it? What is a tautology?

13. How did mathematics resemble the Indian cosmos?

Earthships and 250 World

Good reports in NW today. I haven't found an online representation of Harrison's Brave New World ("250 World," should we call it, in anticipation of its future association with Bill McKibben's 350.org?) But here's what Kayla talked about today:

nuclear safety

Whole Earth Discipline ch. 3-4

1. What technological innovation in the developing world is "connecting every stratum of society"? How does it address old worries about a "digital divide"?

2. Who, 40+ years ago, predicted an explosive population problem leading to mass starvation and coercive governmental mandates? Who did his "nemesis" say about a "demographic transition"? What was Limits to Growth? How did "urbanizaiton defuse the population bomb"?

3. What population policy does Brand now advocate? Why are birthrates still relatively high in France and the U.S.?

4. What does "walkability" contribute to a community? How is Manhattan green? What are the greenest U.S. cities? What are "Alabaster Cities"? What are examples of green infrastructure?

5. What does "cosmopolitan" mean?

6.What has been James Hansen's major contribution to the climate debate? What's been his position on nuclear power?

7. What's the goal of the Long Now Foundation? Why does Brand now consider long-term planning "folly"? What seems to be his current view of the"'seven generations' approach to future responsibility long credited to the Iroquois League"?

8. What does Brand quote Lovelock saying about dangers to civilization greater than nuclear accident?

9. What kind of environmentalists does Brand say Al Gore and Bill McKibben will be in coming years, with respect to nuclear energy? What's the new generation gap?

10. What are the "four great problems" and how does Brand now think of them?

11. What did Roger Revelle say about how we should emulate the Japanese nuclear policy?

(Also in ch.4: the comparative safety risk from coal, electricity, gasoline, natural gas, hydrogen, radiation, fear;  Bhopal; "Chernobyl National Park"; hormesis; natural carcinogens; overspending on nuclear cleanup; Amory Lovins; wind & solar; Lovelock on nuclear waste; nuclear terror; GNEP...)

absurd

"If I didn’t have writing, I’d be running down the street hurling grenades in people’s faces."


Paul Fussell said that. I don't often feel that way myself, but it's exactly the state of mind I was in at 4:30 pm this afternoon when I finally was liberated from the suffocating "Sun Trust" room at the far end of my campus. 


The curriculum committee had deliberated in that room for over three hours before finally coming to my own modest "New Course" proposals and, for the first time all afternoon moving with dispatch, promptly informed me that my papers were not in order. A couple of details (projected enrollment numbers, full bibliographic entries for course materials) had been omitted. Hence, proposals to add my courses to the university catalog would be "tabled" 'til I got those i's dotted and t's crossed.


Never mind that the committee had no substantive objections whatsover, none, to my courses. Never mind that I could have fixed the omissions instantly, on the spot, simply by logging on and entering the solicited information. No, rules are rules, procedures are procedures, committees are committees. Bye. See you next year.

So, I'll come back in the fall and sacrifice another perfectly fine afternoon in the service of bureaucratic protocol. Sure, why not? I'll happily push that stone up the hill once more. Move over, Sisyphus. Absurdity loves company.


There, that feels better. Posting is such sweet therapy. Now I don't have to think about hurling any real grenades. After all, "one must imagine Sisyphus happy." Unless he had to deal with academic committees.

Americans, Wittgenstein, Russell...

PW 108-119


1. What school of philosophy thrived in St. Louis in the 19th century? What is the sensibility of traditional ("classic") American philosophy? 


2. Which Puritan minister echoed John Calvin's view that all humans are born depraved and deserving of eternal punishment?


3. Which American revolutionaries do our authors name as "philosophically talented thinkers"? What has been the "routine" stance of the American public towards philosophy?


4. Which American "anarchist" inspired Gandhi and King? Which American follower of Kant and Hegel promoted humanism and self-reliance and considered nature inherently spiritual? 


5. How did the new American philosophy distinguish itself from the European tradition? What was its unique style? What was it called?


6. Which logician rejected "eternal" and "a priori" beliefs as practically useless, and spurned the label "pragmatist" when he was credited with being the movement's founder? 


7. Who was the "radical empiricist" and pluralist who said religious beliefs may be justified if they help us navigate our experience and make sense of our lives? What is "pluralism" in philosophy? How does it reflect the American experience?


8. Who began as an "evangelical" Hegelian, rejected reductionism and dualism in philosophy, and insisted that children learn best by doing? 


9. Which Harvard student of James's defended "black pride"? 


10. Which German philosopher most influenced "the linguistic turn"? Which English philosopher was not content merely to memorize the arithmetic tables but wanted to show that they could be derived from logic? Who was his collaborator in this endeavor? To what kind of "atoms" did he try to reduce the world's complexity? What other kind of philosophy was he known for?


11. Which German philosopher founded a new approach to the study of consciousness that attempted to describe its essential structures? What did he mean by "intentional"?


12. Which student of Russell's proposed a "picture" theory of meaning and emphasized the "unsayable"? Why did he leave philosophy? What did he say when he came back?


13. What were Freud's pro- and anti-Enlightenment ideas? Why were his ideas considered outrageous?


14. What did Max Weber say about Calvinism?

green in the city

Whole Earth Discipline, 1-2

1. What's the green "whiplash moment"? What is Stewart Brand's definition of pragmatism, and how does he think it can relieve whiplash? Does he think the planet needs saving?

2. What did IPCC models fail to predict in 2007?

3. How will governments experience climate change, according to Brand's associate Nils Gilman? What change is most threatening?

4. What did James Lovelock tell Brand about the cause of his new pessimism? Does Brand agree with his bleak assessment? What are our strategic options?

5. What's "Renewistan"? Is it possible?

6. What's the common affliction of greens and conservatives?

7. Why is Gaia no savior? What is "natural-system restoration"? What can it do for Gaia? Would it be good to stop present technology? What are the auto-catalytic technologies? What's Brand's new motto?

8. Who are our role-models as "benevolent ecosystem engineers"?

9. Is Brand a romantic about village life? What's wrong with subsistence farming? How does Asia represent the new "normal"? What good things come of urban density? What's Kleiber's Law? What's the key to creating a more environmentally sustainable society?

10. What does Brand think created cities?

11. What good does it do to "unleash woman power"?

Peirce to Wittgenstein

O 138-152

1. America's new philosophy, represented by Peirce, James, and Dewey, was called __________. Dewey also called his view ____________, especially as applied to __________. 

2. Which major American philosopher (a colleague of William James's at Harvard, btw) did not like pragmatism? Name a recent American pragmatist. And: what recent Harvard philosopher wrote A Theory of Justice and opposed inequality? Which of his colleagues disagreed vehemently? And which other recent Harvard philosopher (who I met in one of my professors' kitchen in 1978, btw) said experience is a "web of belief"?

3. What French "vitalist" said there's a "life force" powering "creative evolution" in the universe? (William James loved this guy.)

4. What German thinker opposed Cartesian rationalism, said we don't know ourselves or our minds well at all, and emphasized the hidden power of sexuality... but is still not considered a peer, by many philosophers?

5. Gottlob Frege rejected what starting point in philosophy, and founded what new movement? What was his view of mathematics? What did he mean by "sense and reference"?

6. Who were the two English philosophers Frege inspired to try and define math in terms of logic? Who said mathematical systems cannot be entirely defined and are necessarily incomplete?

7. Which branches of analytic philosophy is Ludwig Wittgenstein mainly associated with? What did he claim he accomplished with his Tractatus? What did he consider the proper relation between language and the world? What was his last philosophical pronouncement (for awhile)?

8. Carnap and the Vienna Circle Positivists said all philosophical problems are really about the structure of language, or  _______. Who did they hate? What is the Verification Principle? What did Karl Popper turn it into?

9. When he began philosophizing again, how did Wittgenstein see language and the role of the philosopher? 

surviving

Vanishing Face of Gaia, 8-9

1. How did Lovelock's childhood awaken his love of nature? What does he say is the value of knowing the common names of plants?

2. How did Lovelock "accidentally start" the '70s environmental movement? What was his "disastrous encounter with biofuels"? What did he decide was the "proper thing to do"? "Why was it a mistake to plant trees?" Why didn't his "snake-and-potato farm" succeed?

3. What's Lovelock's objection to "environmentally friendly energy"? What does he (did he?) prefer instead?

4. What "watershed" was marked by the publication of Silent Spring? What kind of "green" is Lovelock? What made environmentalism militant, partisan, and contentious? What part does Lovelock say he played in that?

5. How does Lovelock think liberal humanism distorts environmentalism? What's wrong with the iconography of windmills? What does the "benign ethic" of Southern Baptists have to do with environmental issues?

6. What must we do to be "truly environmentally friendly"? What must we do to "Go West" in the near future?

7. What might have been the climatological impact of the use of fire by early humans? Should we feel guilty about it?

8. What's wrong with the concept of a "tipping point" for climate change? How great is the chance that we might reverse it? Are renewability and sustainability (etc.) constructive goals?

9. Optimistically, how long might Gaia take to recover from the current looming catastrophe? What is her "most inflexible" rule? How long might life continue, if "some bright intelligence" succeeds us?

10. What does E.O. Wilson's "super-intelligent alien" say about life on Earth? How do we thwart our best intentions? What kind of intelligence do we need?

11. What caused the current crisis? Wherein lies our best hope? What kind of animal are we? What kind of  "great and proud future" can we still have? Who should select humanity's survivors?

Pale Blue Dot: the green version

Yet another Scopes sequel

SCOPES IS INDICTED IN TENNESSEE FOR TEACHING EVOLUTION. NASHVILLE, Tenn., May 25, 1925. -- John T. Scopes, young Dayton (Tenn.) high school teacher, tonight stands indicted for having taught the theory of evolution to students attending his science classes in violation of a law passed by the Tennessee Legislature and signed by the Governor on March 21, 1925. 

So what else is new?

NASHVILLE, Tenn., April 7th, 2011.

• Tennessee
 
• anti-evolution
 
• 2011

Tennessee's House Bill 368 passed the House of Representatives on a 70-23 vote on April 7, 2011. "The debate ranged over the scientific method, 'intellectual bullies,' hair spray and 'Inherit the Wind,'" reported the Chattanooga Times Free Press (April 7, 2011)... NCSE
==
Postscript: They're calling this the "critical thinking" bill. Seriously. Here's some of the "debate"... the call to order and prayer begin about five minutes in. What a joke. It's on us.

Where to, humanity?

PW 101-108


1. What did Kierkegaard think is the purpose of existence? What philosophical movement did his view help to establish? What did he mean by "subjective truth"?

2. What did Feuerbach mean by "Man ist was Man isst"? Was he talking mainly about food?

3. What did Feuerbach and Marx do to Hegel's philosophy ("dialectic")?


4. "Man does not live for pleasure. Only the Englishman does." Which Englishmen in particular did Nietzsche probably have  in mind? What principle was at the heart of Mill's liberalism? How did Mill's empiricism impact biology and challenge Aristotle?

5. What theory, now famously associated with whom, did Alfred Russell Wallace nearly claim as his own? What momentous questions does it pose?

6. Nietzsche suggested that humans are a bridge from what to what? What did this throw into question? What did he mean by "the last man"? What ethical philosophy would "the last man" exemplify?

7. Why did Nietzsche like the ancient Greeks' view of suffering, and what did he like about Greek tragedy? What did he dislike about Christian redemption, Schopenhauer's pessimism, and scientific optimism? What was his view of technology? What did he consider the meaning of life?

8. How did Nietzsche think "eternal recurrence" might alter one's view of life? Why didn't he like Plato?