Emotions, Anthony Appiah, Style, Picasso, Originality
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Emotions
Cal Flyn | Five Books | 12th March 2018
Interview with neuroscientist and psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett about the nature of emotions. “We aren’t born with emotions built into our brains. Our brains build emotions as we need them in a way that’s specific to the situation. What fear looks like, feels like, and how it is caused in your brain differs depending on the situation. Fear is not universal. No emotion is universal. Some cultures have anger, sadness, fear, disgust, happiness and so on, and some cultures don’t” (5,500 words)
As If: Anthony Appiah’s Ideals
Thomas Nagel | New York Review Of Books | 19th March 2018
Discussion of Anthony Appiah’s “As If”, which investigates whether recourse to idealised and otherwise simplified models of real-world problems is on balance helpful, or misleading‚ in philosophy and the social sciences. “One of the clearest examples is Adam Smith’s assumption, for purposes of economic theory, that economic agents are motivated exclusively by self-interest—that they are egoists. Smith knew perfectly well that human motivation was much richer than that” (3,440 words)
Guardian Style Guide: C
David Marsh | Guardian | 31st January 2016
“Canal boats: A narrowboat is the popular type of British canal boat, seven feet wide. Do not call it a barge. A barge is a broader cargo-carrying boat – normally towed. The version with accommodation is usually a Dutch barge. A cruiser is the white-hulled style of boat more commonly seen on rivers; smaller versions are cabin cruisers. The difference between narrowboat and barge is important, particularly if you don’t want to get stuck in a narrow lock somewhere outside Birmingham” (7,080 words)
Picasso’s Nudist Streak
Fiametta Rocco | 1843 | 19th March 2018
Painting nude women — from memory, never from life — was Picasso’s way of dealing with his mid-life crisis. “In 1932 Picasso had recently turned 50. As he painted alone in his studio, his wife ran a busy, fashionable household downstairs. Out in society the artist wore spats and drove a Hispano-Suiza. Picasso hankered after the freedom he’d enjoyed as a young artist. For several months his voluptuous young mistress, Marie-Thérèse Walter, had been filling his paintings” (1,200 words)
The Copy Is The Original
Byung-Chul Han | Aeon | 8th March 2018
On contrasting notions of originality and reproduction Eastern and Western culture. Why should Chinese terracotta warriors made ten years ago be thought inferior to ancient ones dug up in Xian? “From the start, the production of replicas of the terracotta warriors proceeded in parallel with the excavations. They were not forgeries. Rather, we might say that the Chinese were trying to restart production — production that from the beginning was not creation but already reproduction” (2,500 words)
Video of the day Les Machines Impossibles
What to expect:
Where your bowling ball goes, after you throw it and before it returns to you (1’30”)
Thought for the day
The aim of argument should not be victory, but progress
Karl Popper
Podcast of the day Fermi’s Paradox | Anatomy Of Next
Michael Solana and guests discuss whether there might be life or Mars, or anywhere else in the Universe
(39m 05s)