Would a society of intellectuals be a better place? Hermann Hesse’s ‘The Glass Bead Game’ is probably his greatest novel, his deepest, most intriguing, most hackerish in spirit. It combines a theory of history and education with lessons in Zen, meditations on the enduring power of institutions, friendship, duty and excellence, forays into the psychology of genius, a description of life at a hacker paradise like the 1960s MIT, and an intriguing vision of a fictional game that seems like a cross between a unified field theory, a lisp s-expression tree, predicate calculus and generative art, all in one: a unified, grand Lego of the mind, the ultimate programming language of the universe. … (Daily Philosophy)
The discipline of action. Epictetus of Hierapolis (50-135 CE) began life as a slave and ended it as the most renowned teacher of philosophy in the Roman world. Talk about going from rags to riches! Yet the little we know of his lifestyle indicates that despite his fame, Epictetus lived a simple life until the end. When he was old he adopted a friend’s child who would have otherwise likely died; and his main concern was not to make money but to teach young Roman aristocrats how to become better human beings and future leaders. One of the reasons we still study Epictetus two millennia later is because of his threefold curriculum in practical Stoic philosophy, the so-called disciplines of Desire, Action, and Assent. Last time we looked at the theory and practice of Desire. Let’s now turn to Action. … (Philosophy Now)
Tolkien and the classics. When Bilbo finds the Ring in the darkness of the goblin tunnels beneath the Misty Mountains after having lost his dwarves, his wizard and his way, he unwittingly picks up a powerful artifact and a theme of ancient origin. Magic rings do appear in old tales—some of them in mythology from which Tolkien clearly drew inspiration. In Norse mythology, there is the magic ring Andvaranaut, forged by the shape-shifting dwarf Andvari and Draupnir, which belonged to the god Odin. But neither of these bear much comparison to Tolkien’s Ring. Their powers are too materialistic, making and hoarding gold, rather than the more spiritual and far more dangerous power of dominating the wills of others. The ring story that may bear the closest resemblance to Tolkien’s is of more ancient origin: the tale of Gyges, which occurs in Book II of Plato’s Republic. In it, Glaucon tells the story of Gyges’ ring, which depicts a man free from the necessity to be just, i.e., free from the fear of punishment. Such a man, he argues, would be foolish if he continued to act in a just manner when he could have anything he wants. The ring allows him to fulfill his desires because it can render its wearer invisible. It is the ability to pass unseen that provides the fulcrum for the examination of justice in Plato’s story. … (Classical Wisdom)
The fallacy game. One of the first things one learns as a skeptic is the classification of so-called logical fallacies. Indeed, there is a whole website, Your Logical Fallacy Is, devoted to instructing skeptics on how to play the fallacy game (see https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/). The popular internet destination (290k “likes” and counting) tells us: “This site has been designed to help you identify and call out dodgy logic wherever it may raise its ugly, incoherent head. Rollover the icons above and click for examples. If you see someone committing a fallacy, link them to it.” … (Skeptical Inquirer)
Plautus: master of Roman comedy. It’s been often said that what was good about the Romans came from their cultural forefathers, the Greeks. Like most (I refrain from saying ‘all’) generalizations, there are grains of both truth and falsehood to this claim. Whilst there may well be startling similarities between Greek and Roman art, gods, drinking habits, sexual conduct and empire building, these are nothing compared to the parallels between the two cultures’ comedic theatre. In this respect, the man we turn to in order to sample our very first taste of Roman literature, is the playwright Plautus. … (Classical Wisdom)
The fallacies article was fun but I disagree with “ politicians and media” as main culprits. Daily life is full of bs reasoning and as someone actively engaged in politics I don’t believe mainline politicians are particularly bad (advertising! parents, preachers) but I don’t experience us politics up close.
The ‘Logical Fallacy Is’ link, which I was unaware the existence of-the reference to the Republic ...which I happen to be re-reading right now, being struck by the similarities between the ring of Gyges justice dialogue, and “ring effect” seen in Tolkiens vis Gollum. This is the sort of thing that made me subscribe to ‘Figs’...thank you, Mass-you have made my retirement a much more interesting/stimulating time than it probably would have been after having had set aside the law and medicine...which tho still involved in , albeit peripherally , had left a significant hole in my thinking life. Very grateful. 🙏