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from
mefi
Martha Nussbaum
reviews three recent books on Shakespeare and philosophy. The essay offers an excellent analysis of love in
Antony and Cleopatra and
Othello, and an excellent discussion of the interaction between philosophy and literature.
posted to MetaFilter by painquale
at 6:38 PM on May 5, 2008
(17 comments)
"A few years ago a psychologist and a philosopher got into an argument over whether we can accurately describe our thoughts. "Yes," said the psychologist; with training and the help of my special technique, we can accurately describe our thoughts. The philosopher doubted it. To resolve their argument, they recruited a young woman who agreed tell them her thoughts, so that they could argue over whether she was credible." Eric Schwitzgebel and Russ Hurlbert debate
the transparency of inner experience. See also Schwitzgebel's extremely interesting
blog.
posted to MetaFilter by painquale
at 7:39 PM on January 13, 2008
(34 comments)
Since
Wordplay has come out, crossword puzzles have been on the rise. If you want to join in on the fun, read
this primer by Will Shortz to get started, then download
Across Lite, head to
Cruciverb, and do free puzzles in the right-hand sidebar.
Will Johnston's page contains a huge repository of Across Lite puzzles. If you get stuck, can't figure out why an entry is correct, or just want to chat about a grid's brilliant construction, try reading the crossword blogs. The best two are
Diary of a Crossword Fiend and
Rex Parker Does the New York Times Crossword Puzzle. (Caution! Spoilers abound!) And, if you want to try your hand at constructing some crosswords of your own (submission guidelines for various papers
here),
Crossword Compiler is an outstanding piece of software.
[Via this AskMetafilter question]
posted to MetaFilter by painquale
at 1:07 PM on January 22, 2007
(26 comments)
Graphs, Maps, Trees.
The Valve is hosting a literary event for professor Franco Moretti's new book,
Graphs, Maps, Trees. Moretti aims to reinvigorate literary studies by constructing abstract models based upon quantitative history, geography, and evolutionary theory. PDFs of the original articles:
Graphs,
Maps,
Trees. A review at n+1 is
here.
posted to MetaFilter by painquale
at 9:54 AM on January 13, 2006
(10 comments)
Is Civilization Decaying?
Will technological progress be accompanied by moral progress? Notes on a 1923 debate between J. B. S. Haldane (
Daedalus) and Bertrand Russell (
Icarus).
"As John Brunner pointed out in an article in the New Scientist in 1993, these two books ... inspired two generations of science fiction writers."
posted to MetaFilter by painquale
at 1:00 AM on July 10, 2005
(11 comments)
The Academic JFK Assassination site
is an unbelievably thorough compendium of information on the Kennedy assassination. It's an excursion into conspiracy theories without any crackpottery. Some of the articles are immensely readable. See, for example, Richard Popkin's 1966 New York Review of Books article
The Second Oswald.
posted to MetaFilter by painquale
at 2:01 PM on April 17, 2005
(21 comments)
It's Carnival Time! In 2002,
Silflay Hraka launched the internet's first carnival:
The Carnival of the Vanities. Carnivals are showcases of the best that blogs have to offer; bloggers send in posts they have made that they are especially pleased with, and a rotating editor collates them into a weekly edition with editorial comments. Think of carnivals as best-of-the-blogosphere magazines. The Carnival of the Vanities (current edition
here) doesn't have any particular focus, but a number of offshoots dedicated to specific fields have popped up. Stay up to date on blog postings about
philosophy,
science,
history,
the early modern period,
sex,
Canada, and (if desperately bored)
cats. A new carnival about atheism,
The Carnival of the Godless, will be coming out at the end of the month.
posted to MetaFilter by painquale
at 5:25 AM on January 23, 2005
(5 comments)
The Ethics of Deep Self-Modification.
What will happen when machines gain the ability to modify their own psychology? Do we have a responsibility to step in? What happens when we have the ability to modify
ourselves? Philosopher
Peter Suber has dedicated himself to issues of self-modification... not just in psychology, but also in
constitutional law. Small wonder that this is the guy who invented
Nomic. His site is littered with great stuff; he now is primarily involved with the open access movement. Check out his
open access primer and
blog.
posted to MetaFilter by painquale
at 4:45 PM on January 3, 2005
(14 comments)
Etymology-wise, which hormone is an island? What word both denotes a prime and euphemizes Satan? What word denotes "the future" and abbreviates the unknown? Is urine pith? These are some of the questions from "
Moot: The World's Toughest Language Game," a homemade and little-known board game for lovers of words.
Some puzzles are available online; there are a few more available on a page detailing the
interesting story behind the game's creation. You can
sign up to have a new language puzzle e-mailed to you every week.
posted to MetaFilter by painquale
at 12:09 PM on December 4, 2004
(8 comments)
