As I described earlier, the use of posture/submit behavior to establish social dominance is an integral part of our human biological heritage. It has always been a part of politics. In unthinkably ancient times, perhaps it might have been enough … Continue reading
Category Archives: Tools and Ideas
My previous posts on the marketplace of ideas and posture/submit behavior were part of a train of thought that has been rattling around in my head for some time. It grew out of the insight that what we call the … Continue reading
In my last installment I made reference to ideology and ideologues as one of the great enemies of a functional, fruitful marketplace of ideas. This is self-evident to most people if you cite their least-favorite ideologues as hijackers of intellectual … Continue reading
The history of intellectual progress focuses mostly on individuals—Thales, Socrates, Confucius, Archimedes, Bacon, Aquinas, Da Vinci and so forth. It isn’t all that often that you hear of institutions. There is the Academy of Athens, of course, the University of … Continue reading
I have alluded elsewhere to the fact that people learn differently, and that the wise guerrilla scholar will attempt to identify and leverage his or her own unique style of learning to the best advantage. If you’re interested in this … Continue reading
If civilizations have a soul, in my opinion it is to be found in their libraries. Among those who study ancient history directly, i.e., archaeologists, few finds are more prized than something with writing on it. And if you are … Continue reading
“Distance learning” is going from a buzzword to a household name, which is amusing to anyone who is at all familiar with the history of “correspondence schools”. The Internet has simply added a lot of electronic muscle to an idea … Continue reading
Every once in awhile when you get a bunch of intellectual types “talking shop”, the subject turns to the matter of intellectual objectivity. The journalist and broadcast majors will go on and on about the problems of maintaining objectivity and … Continue reading
I just ran across a really cool post by Kevin Carson at Mutualist Blog: Free Market Anti-Capitalism about “open source textbooks”. I’ve known about some projects like the MIT Open Courseware project for some time; this is a collection of … Continue reading
By way of taking my own advice about the value of learning languages, after last Thanksgiving I started studying Mandarin Chinese using Pimsleur Comprehensive Mandarin, Level I, which is an absolutely outstanding tool for anyone who wants to learn to … Continue reading