Prof of Sociology, @warwickuni. Founder of Social Epistemology and Author of Humanity 2.0 and Post Truth: Knowledge as a Power Game
University of Warwick
Joined July 2011
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My new book is 'Media and the Power of Knowledge'. It is partly based on lectures I've given over the last 15 years. It updates McLuhan for the age of @X: futurespodcast.net/events/me…
However these rankings are done, the US presidents thirty years on either side of Lincoln come out looking bad.
I've been told that I can make any crazy idea sound sensible. I take that as a compliment. It's a bit like being able to see the adult in the child. Maybe, it's an old Jesuit trick, but it ultimately goes back to Plato's Meno.
The problem with writing philosophy with the 'surface clarity' of a John Searle is that it gives you a false sense of knowing what you're talking about. It's more frustrating to read than the convoluted prose of a 'continental' philosopher, where friction is part of the message.
Underrated book.
Having only discovered the work of Tainter recently, I’ve decided to compare his approach to historical analysis along with the thinkers I am more sympathetic to (namely philosophers such as Ibn Khaldun, Hegel, Carlyle, Spengler, and Gebser.)
youtu.be/JsT9V3WQiNA?is=Jmr8…
The only 'existential threat' worthy of Existentialists is the threat that you -- not someone or something else -- might pose.
If you want reparations, you better enforce them after the harm has happened, and the harmers and harmed can properly face each other. That's why the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission worked.
He's right in all he says, and I agree with the policy. But what he suggests -- if it passes -- would be a kind of finishing the job of imperialism. Again, no problem!
Philosophy started as a way of spending your leisure, but has ended up as a way of slumming it at the meta-level of work.
If you ever doubted the value of an Oxbridge degree, it's demonstrated here (Jimmy Carr is a Cambridge graduate).
When you see all these longitudinal and statistical presentations designed to trigger your response, treat them as public service announcements that you live in the #PostTruth condition.
'Belonging' is just a politically correct way of talking about 'status quo', except the former is more exclusive in intent.
This is brilliant and very apropos to our times!
Remember when they said Erwin Schrödinger was a paedophile? Well, a team of historians have now chimed in.
youtube.com/watch?v=op8nY2Uv…
People interested in #intersectionality should look at this kind of choreography to re-energize an idea that has become increasingly mired in scholasticism: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham…
You can be an ordinary person and think extraordinary thoughts. At least, that's the point if you're human.
My main reason for being lenient with students is that I routinely see what so-called professionals try to pass off as publishable material. Students may suffer from a lack of citations, but professionals suffer from a lack of ideas.
I review a lot of academic papers for publication, and frankly authors waste too many words trying to placate people who they think might be reading what they write -- but probably won't. It's like pouring libations to appease the non-existent gods.