SubscribeLife is unpredictable and much of human culture is in essence a means to deal with the unpredictable. We can not know whether the next harvest will fail, whether we still have a job next year or when we will die. Ancient systems, such as astrology and other forms of divination were developed to reduce [...]
The Horizon of Reason
Exploring the boundaries of logic and perception
Tag: rationality
The truth of Pi
My idea of a great time: smoking sheesha in Egypt, wearing my favourite T-shirt (ThinkGeek.com).
The print on the shirt consists of the first 4,493 digits of the number Pi in the shape of the symbol itself.
The number Pi, not the number 42 as some have proposed, symbolises the ultimate truth of the universe. Let me [...]
The end of magic?
I have recently purchased a facsimile copy of Reginald Scott’s The Discoverie of Witchcraft (originally published in 1584).
This is an important book in the history of Western civilisation as it is the first ever book in which methods for creating magic are explained. This might seem an overstatement, as magic is nowadays a trivialised from [...]
The illusiveness of fairness
Fairness is a concept which is used often to justify a point of view when discussing the distribution of goods or benefits – “it should be done fairly”. But what does this mean, what is fair and what is not fair? Most people seem to have a very strong sense whether something is fair [...]
The limits of Dawkinism
I have been reading Richard Dawkins‘ book, The God Delusion. Although I largely agree with his atheist point of view, I think he stretches his argument a bit too far as he does not seem to acknowledge that there is a limit to what we can achieve with reason, a horizon across which rational [...]
Management as a Science
In my work as Business Improvement Manager I get exposed to a lot of theories of management. Many theories proclaim to provide final solutions to the complexity of managing contemporary corporations. Some theories are deceivingly simple, others are very complex, requiring specialist training.
One thing the theories have in common is that they come and go [...]
Venom Crystals
I am currently writing an essay on futility and its relation to the meaning of life, based on a paper by William Joske. (W.D. Joske, ‘Philosophy and the Meaning of Life’ Australasian Journal of Philosophy (1974), 52:93-104).
Joske argues that philosophy is a dangerous activity because almost all flavours of thinking lead to the conclusion that [...]
The Epistemology of Religious Experience
The question of the epistemology of religious experience deals with the question whether information obtained through religious experiences can be considered valid knowledge. For a brief introduction into different forms of religious experience, see my paper on that subject.
Information obtained through religious experiences, which I shall further refer to as Revelation, is not considered valid [...]
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