philosophy

A bust of Srinivasa Ramanujan in Kolkata. Asking for Signs # A fallen-away Catholic friend once told me that he wished the Bible predicted modern science. “If Jesus said, ‘Oh, by the way, matter is made up of atoms,’ then I would also believe him when he says he’s God,” he said. I don’t think we should expect Jesus to have said things like that. First, it wouldn’t have helped anyone in the centuries before it could be verified.

Dear Sebastian, I read your open letter on your economics curriculum. I happen to be thinking a lot about career advice at the moment, so the advice you include from 80000hours was interesting to me. I love the idea of including career advice in an economics class, and situating it right when the curriculum has caused that sort of angst in your students is perceptive. But I have mixed feelings about what I found at 80000hours, and it provides a useful framework for talking about the thoughts I already had brewing.

Portrait of a Family by Cornelis de Vos. A lot of the links I’ve saved in the past six months concern the broader topic of families. Here’s a top ten from May to this week: Noah Millman comments on parenthood and fertility rates. Amazing insight into, and compassion for, the way our culture fears the future. It’s also the best treatment I’ve seen of the climate change fear.

A web of neurons. [This is part 1 of a 6-8 part series. I’ll link the other parts here as they’re posted.] We sit in oversized green chairs in the nook at the north end of the first floor of the philosophy building. I have math classes and girls on my mind, and as usual, the conversation hovers just above the upper border of my head. This is Philosophy Club, and J has just declared himself a miriological nihilist.