Are we getting physical, then?

The great Oracle at Delphi once told a young Athenian that Socrates was the wisest man in the world.  When the youth asked Socrates why this was, he replied, “I suppose it is because I know nothing, but I do have opinions on many things!” We can see that Socrates was using the word knowledge [...]

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Common thinking

One of the most interesting writers of the twentieth century is Owen Barfield.  CS Lewis, who was no mean intellect himself, described him as the best of his unofficial tutors.  Barfield was destined for a brilliant academic career at Oxford but the early death of his father required him to take over the family law [...]

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Being and becoming

To become the person you would like to be, you must begin by pretending to be that person.  If you are poor, but would like to be rich, you must first pretend to have those qualities and abilities that will lead you to riches.  If you are meek, but would like to be powerful, you [...]

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Ways of seeing

It’s always fun to analyse things.  We do analysis so readily because it is easy ; synthesis (imaginative thinking) is a lot harder.  Science makes such good progress because it involves mostly analysis. But, easy though it is, the results of analysis are still a puzzle.  For example, we might do a hundred experiments in [...]

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Getting the description right

It cannot be seriously doubted that nowadays people are more scientific than at any previous time.  Despite its obvious shortcomings, the technological successes of science have seduced millions into believing that it is the only way to describe the workings of the world properly. One of the most unfortunate things to emerge from our love [...]

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The nature of things

I have mentioned before that, while I admire Freud, I am not a Freudian.  It is quite possible to see the virtues in a person without agreeing in the least with his or her ideas ; just as it is quite possible to see the  merits of a theory or of a hypothesis without buying [...]

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Seeing through time

Conventions bring us comfort, if only because they lend structure to the world we live in.  They provide us with points of reference with which to compare one event with another.  And it is these points of reference which make the ever-changing world relatively stable. One of our major conventions concerns the physical world.  When, [...]

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Introduction (you can skip this post if you like)

Welcome to my blog. Whether you came through my door by choice or by chance, I am glad to ‘meet’ you.  Of course, I hope you enjoy your visit and hope you’ll come again often.  But that will depend on how interested you are in my opinions and (I suppose) how much you agree with [...]

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