Tag Archives: Aquinas

Relevant Complexity 5) Age

Posted on July 7, 2012 by

Talking to someone at work, she said she’d been surprised that a very experienced chap in his late 50s had come on a training course. We concluded that age shouldn’t matter in deciding who gets training. I know plenty of … Continue reading →

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Death Becomes Us

Posted on April 19, 2012 by

I’m reading the ‘Death’ edition of the redoubtable Philosophy Now magazine. And a bone-rattlingly good read it is too. Death dissected through metaphor, thought experiments, cool logic and rational argument. The core issue, this issue: as medical technology advances should … Continue reading →

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Note to Self

Posted on December 17, 2011 by

I came upon a terse description of ‘identity’ this week in a longer piece by neuroscientist Terrence W. Deacon of USC Berkeley: An intrinsic tendency to maintain a distinctive integrity against the ravages of increasing entropy as well as disturbances … Continue reading →

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Embodied Intelligence

Posted on November 19, 2011 by

Why is an octopus smarter than a snail? Same family, same squishy body. Yet one is entirely predictable, the other spookily individual. Is it ‘in’ their bodies? Having reflected on the ‘embodied intelligence’ in a strawberry last week, I read … Continue reading →

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Strawberry

Posted on November 13, 2011 by

I’ve discovered ‘Philosophy Now‘ via Kindle. And a find it is too. This month’s edition delves into the Philosophy of Mind which I studied twenty odd years ago. What’s new? Quite a lot. But, also, quite a lot is not. … Continue reading →

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Of Angels

Posted on November 5, 2011 by

Smarting from the accusation I seldom read the source, I’m wading through Aquinas at present. Corblimey he’s obsessed with some things well beyond my interest. But that’s because I’m reading him for his ethics, and he’s writing a science book … Continue reading →

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In Praise of ‘Prudentia’

Posted on October 28, 2011 by

The virtue of ‘Prudentia’ In Aquinas’s teaching, Is ‘practical wisdom’ in Choice and decision. It’s a Bayesian thing, Not just logical stages. Which a life of experience And virtue engages. Grounded in reason But felt in the boots, You can’t … Continue reading →

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Philia

Posted on October 27, 2011 by

I do feel – and feel is the right word – that Herbert McCabe’s ‘On Aquinas’ deserves a wider audience. So many important themes, from so many thinkers, rendered limpid in a thesis all of his own. Of course there’s … Continue reading →

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Crystallisation

Posted on October 12, 2011 by

At the core of Aristotle’s account of ethics and virtue is ‘Prohairesis’ – the central moral character. I increasingly think of it like a copper sulphate crystal growing on a piece of thread. When you do the classic school experiment, … Continue reading →

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Language

Posted on September 26, 2011 by

Re-reading a chapter of Herbert McCabe’s ‘On Aquinas’ last night, the outline of a new understanding emerged from the complex conceptual haze of the ‘philosophy of language’. Language is the means through which we transcend individual experience and share our … Continue reading →

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