Recent links…
- Meet Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi — Colossal Biosciences has created what they’re calling the world’s first de-extinct animals: three dire wolves
- “Each month, one scholar talks about one change they would like to see in the world” — the “One Change in the World” podcast
- “Things are going to get worse. To face it well, we must face it together” — Becko Copenhaver reflects on her time as Secretary-Treasurer of the Pacific APA and the value of a member-driven organization
- “Articulating… what we want from A.I., and what we don’t want… requires serious and broadly humanistic intellectual work… And the time for doing this work is running out” — Joshua Rothman on why “those of us outside of A.I. insert ourselves into the conversation”
- “Having Simpson’s Paradox in my tool belt helps me understand both how certain weird results come about, but also how people might agree about the fundamental facts but come to very different conclusions” — and the paradox shows up a lot, explains Steven Hales
- “The play re-envisions several timely and universal themes: democracy versus tyranny, education versus indoctrination, ethics versus politics, and the role of family as the foundation of good leadership” — “Aristotle/Alexander”, a new play, recently opened in Los Angeles
- Summer Programs in Philosophy 2025 — a final reminder
Mini-Heap posts usually appear when 7 or so new items accumulate in the Heap of Links, a collection of items from around the web that may be of interest to philosophers. The Heap of Links consists partly of suggestions from readers; if you find something online that you think would be of interest to the philosophical community, please send it in for consideration for the Heap. Thank you.
Previous Edition
An introduction to science, art and worldviews (both philosophical and religious) collaborating, converging, and engaging in various modes of conversation, if you will, are the subject matter of the post below. In one respect it hearkens back to ancient Greece, for it is a reminder that the “… [T]he ancient Greeks did not recognise aesthetic autonomy and the separation of the value spheres,” for, as “Paul Oskar Kristeller wrote [in Renaissance Thought and the Arts (Princeton University Press, 1990)] that although the ancients knew excellent works of art and felt their charm, ‘they were neither able nor eager to detach [their] aesthetic quality … from their intellectual, moral, religious and practical functioning or context….’” This more or less “unity of values” appears in different times and places around our planet, for example, in Neo-Confucian philosophy and in the moral and spiritual philosophy of the late Iris Murdoch (well described as an ‘unorthodox’ virtue ethicist). Introducing Science & Art … or Art & Science
Re #1: “all Colossal has done is create a genetically engineered gray wolf that looks like what the company thinks a dire wolf might have looked like.” https://www.sciencealert.com/did-dire-wolves-just-come-back-from-extinction-heres-the-truth