Archive for January, 2010

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on flow

I discovered this while working on my PhD research proposal (which at the moment is on again, though maybe not for long). I’m interested in the implications of altered states such as flow for philosophy of mind. But you don’t need to be a philosopher or psychologist to learn a lot from this. Some of [...]

January 30, 2010   Posted in: philosophy, psychology  No Comments

Empathy with robots

This is a fascinating, if short, article in New Scientist magazine. Exposure to robots in the movies and television could affect our ability to empathise with synthetic beings, suggests a study of the brain regions thought to be responsible for our ability to relate to each other. The team found that the MNS [mirror neuron [...]

January 22, 2010   Posted in: pro-social, psychology  No Comments

Daniel Goleman on compassion

As a follow-up to the last message, here’s a TED video of Daniel Goleman speaking on compassion. This is pro-social science—very nice!

January 16, 2010   Posted in: pro-social, psychology  2 Comments

Don’t Rage Against the Machine

It’s generally futile if not destructive and here’s why… What, exactly, is this “machine”? A few minutes spent studying the politics of the group who took the coveted Christmas Number One slot in the UK Singles Chart in 2009 (see Rage Against the Machine on Wikipedia) makes it clear that what they’re against is the [...]

January 16, 2010   Posted in: politics, pro-social  No Comments

Dennett lecture on “free will”

A couple of years ago Daniel Dennett gave a public lecture at Edinburgh University on free will, determinism and compatibilism (the view that determinism and free will are compatible). He’s a very good speaker (as well as a great writer) and I think everyone who is interested in these issues should see this whether their [...]

January 11, 2010   Posted in: announcements  3 Comments

Tweetdeck makes it very easy…

to keep an eye on your Twitter and Facebook accounts (among others). You can post to them from it too, but that’s maybe not quite as convenient. It’s a free download, from http://www.tweetdeck.com/

January 8, 2010   Posted in: announcements  No Comments

VS Ramachandran: The neurons that shaped civilization

VS Ramachandran: The neurons that shaped civilization http://tinyurl.com/yceysmc Neuroscience, culture, empathy, eastern philosophy, etc, etc. All in about seven minutes. Amazing.

January 6, 2010   Posted in: philosophy, psychology  No Comments