We smile at Aristotle for imbuing stones with agency, and ascribing to their affinity for the earth the effects of gravity; yet language almost compels us, when we speak of inanimate objects, to imply the same thing.
Feb 022021
Feb 012021
To argue with one’s political opponents is neither effective nor satisfying. It is more satisfying to insult and rage at them, and more effective to libel and report them.
Jan 292021
Humans, though naturally curious, are also highly trainable, and when we are punished often enough for noticing something we will eventually refrain.
Jan 282021
Fascism has often been popular. Communism has never been popular.
Jan 272021
Great problems are solved backwards: practice, then theory, and philosophical foundations, if ever, last of all.
Jan 262021
The more plausible the heresy, the more rigorously it must be suppressed.
Jan 252021
Law of Scientific Consensus: A consensus will form on the hypothesis most likely to confer funding and employment. This hypothesis will always be termed “scientific” and may well be true.
Jan 222021
Pedantry is the soul of midwit.
Jan 212021
To fend for oneself in a high civilization demands a certain cognitive minimum; when too many lack it the civilization lowers itself to meet them, and the process is hastened by letting them vote.
Jan 202021
Beauty has no history, and every history of art is only a history of taste.