Unwrapping art (and other stuff) with Jonathan Cooper ★ Disvolvi arton (kaj aliaj aferoj) kun Jonathan Cooper
Are you free? Free to choose what you do and make decisions? Or are you incapable of deciding anything for yourself? You feel like you’re in control of your life, or at least what you’re having for breakfast. But that may be an illusion. Physics can actually force you to go through life as if … Read more
My oldest brother Christopher recently wrote a book, The God Theorem: God seen through the eyes of a mathematician, in which he explains his worldview and spiritual faith, and discusses some tricky questions about life, philosophy and morality. Because he is a mathematician, his approach is through a system of logic. And a fundamental concept … Read more
By “soul”, I mean something beyond the body, which nevertheless is an essential part of “me”. I will use the method Reductio ad absurdum (“reduction to the absurd”): I will assume the opposite of what I am trying to prove. If this leads to an absurd outcome, I will be able to conclude that the … Read more
I’ve been re-reading a book, “What Makes Us Tick?” by Hugh Mackay (Hachette, 2010). Here are a few favourite quotes from chapter 4, “The desire to connect”: “The Russian literary critic, Viktor Shklovsky, wrote that ‘art exists that one might recover the sensations of life; it exists to make one feel things, to make the … Read more