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Great Thinkers — On people who represent big ideas

• [article] Great Spirits of History — 6 Sep 2024
  The ‘Great Man’ theory of history has the history of ideas moved forward by individuals. But by thinking of these as ‘Great Ideas’, or better ‘spirits’ of ideas, we’re encouraged to examine their motivations, which is surprisingly effective.
• [article] Amusing Ourselves to Death — 21 Sep 2021
  Since the invention of the telegraph, information has become increasingly atomized, incoherent, and irrelevant. Our media technology encourages entertainment, not discourse. Information ‘from nowhere’, ‘to no one’ about which we can do nothing. We don’t have to lean in.
• [article] A narrative of 'grit' — 16 Jan 2021
  Angela Duckworth’s concept of the personality trait ‘grit’ is an interesting one, but it’s actually rather less helpful than the narrative about success she weaves in her book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance.
• [article] The sophists: natural justice or social justice? — 4 Oct 2020
  Greek philosophers argued whether social morality was a creation of the weak to control the strong, but of course this is simply another form of strength.
• [article] Chomsky's 'Manufacturing Consent' explains everything that's ever pissed you off about the news — 10 Jul 2020
  Say what you will about Noam Chomsky, he had some bright ideas. The book he co-authored with Edward Herman is often described as ideological. It’s a shame, because when you strip out the strident denounciations of the U.S. government, it’s extremely interesting and helps explain many of the bizarre and annoying trends we see in media today. It’s almost like they don’t want you to know…
• [article] The New Democracy — 13 May 2020
  Today’s representative democracy balances power between the few & many. Despite flaws & crises, it provides stability for change, avoiding turmoil & uprisings. The many gave power to the few; change is in their hands.
• [article] Who was Plato and Why Should We Care — 22 Apr 2020
  Plato has become something of a synonym for philosophy. A figurehead that encapsulates the idea of searching for meaning. In doing so, his philosophy has escaped us. And yet, his works from almost 2500 years ago reflect on matters that we still grapple with today.
• [article] The struggle to be good; early psychology — 28 Aug 2015
  <p>Sigmund Freud was an unusual dude. He had some wacky ideas. But he also had some very useful ones. Prior to Freud, not very many people took the study of the mind very seriously. One of his more useful conceptions was his 1923 ‘Structural Model’, essen…