philosophy

The audacity of it all

In books, philosophy on 28 June 2009 with no comments

There are times when you wonder. How can you ever truly understand? How is one to grasp the truth behind all the appearances? As Nassim Taleb puts it, “the world is opaque and appearances fool us”. People lie all the time. Even scientists do it. The Economist recently concluded an article about the (dis-) honesty [...]

Giving everyone a voice is great – except when it isn’t

In current affairs, philosophy on 20 June 2009 with no comments

The internet has enabled so much more people than before to speak out. This is one of its great achievements. Not everyone may have an audience. But at least it ‘s now theoretically possible for ever more people around the world to be heard. Thankfully, this does not depend on whether an intelligentsia, or a [...]