Suggested readings, #147

Here it is, a rundown of interesting articles I’ve come across recently, to consider for your weekend readings:

America is now in fascism’s legal phase. “Let us be reminded that before there is a final solution, there must be a first solution, a second one, even a third. The move toward a final solution is not a jump. It takes one step, then another, then another.” So began Toni Morrison’s 1995 address to Howard University, entitled Racism and Fascism, which delineated 10 step-by-step procedures to carry a society from first to last. … (Guardian)

Life in the garden of forking paths. We primates of the homo sapiens variety are very clever when it comes to making maps and plotting courses over dodgy terrain, so it comes as no surprise that we are prone to think of possible actions over time as akin to different paths across a landscape. A choice that comes to me in time can be seen easily as the choice between one path or another, even when geography really has nothing to do with it. My decision to emit one string of words rather than another, or to slip into one attitude or another, or to roll my eyes or stare stolidly ahead, can all be described as taking the path on the right instead the path on the left. And because we primates of the homo sapiens variety are notably bad at forecasting the consequences of our decisions, the decision to choose one path and lose access to the other, forever, can be momentous and frightening. It’s often better to stay in bed. … (3QuarksDaily)

Are we witnessing the dawn of post-theory science? Isaac Newton apocryphally discovered his second law – the one about gravity – after an apple fell on his head. Much experimentation and data analysis later, he realised there was a fundamental relationship between force, mass and acceleration. He formulated a theory to describe that relationship – one that could be expressed as an equation, F=ma – and used it to predict the behaviour of objects other than apples. His predictions turned out to be right (if not always precise enough for those who came later). … (Guardian)

The Dunning-Kruger effect is probably not real. I want the Dunning-Kruger effect to be real. First described in a seminal 1999 paper by David Dunning and Justin Kruger, this effect has been the darling of journalists who want to explain why dumb people don’t know they’re dumb. There’s even video of a fantastic pastiche of Turandot’s famous aria, Nessun dorma, explaining the Dunning-Kruger effect. “They don’t know,” the opera singer belts out at the climax, “that they don’t know.” … (McGill)

Ethical Culture is dead. Long live congregational humanism! I can pinpoint the exact moment I realized Ethical Culture was dead. I had just struggled through yet another virtual board meeting, the discussion dominated by an issue that had riven our tiny federation of humanist congregations for months. Once again, institutional dysfunction was getting in the way of progress. We had a clear opportunity to demonstrate integrity and commitment to our values, a chance to show leadership and reaffirm the central commitments of our humanist worldview, yet we were frozen, unable to act. The discussion went round in endless circles, as if a swirling void was sucking in all our energy and good intentions, a black hole of enervation. … (OnlySky)

Reading as a philosopher. Next to the large red “D” at the bottom of the term paper I wrote for a mid-level political science course during my second semester in college, was written, “You think like a philosopher, not a political scientist.” Blithely taking this comment, the only comment, as sage advice rather than dismissive insult, I signed up to take “Theories of Human Nature” in the philosophy department the next semester. … (The Philosophers’ Magazine)

Uncovering Sparta. Unlike other great cities of ancient fame such as Rome, Athens or Jerusalem, Sparta seems to have disappeared off the map. What remains of the legendary town? A name? An archaeological site? A historical memory? That memory, if it exists at all, is often of a city-state with a mania for martial valour and athleticism, a distrust of foreigners, and extreme austerity. It’s popularly captured today in the phrase ‘This – is – Sparta!’ as shouted by Gerard Butler, playing King Leonidas in the film 300 (2006) when he kicks the Persian messenger into a well. … (Aeon)