Metaphysics and Better Physics
September 9, 2012
Last week I attended a workshop on Causation in Physics, part of a larger project called Causation in Science (CauSci for short). Among the speakers was the ever-eloquent and erudite Thor Sandmel whose talk raised the question of how physics relates to our experience of causation in the world. We have a philosophical theory of …
Riefenstahl’s Olympia
July 5, 2012
Can art be beautiful even though it’s wrong or would its wrongness destroy its beauty? This rather abstract question of contemporary aesthetics is made concrete in the example of filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl’s work. Riefenstahl was revolutionary, pioneering in the 1930s a number of cinematographic innovations. She used unusual angles on her subjects; she distorted the …
Literature, Philosophy and Existentialism
June 17, 2012
I have a difficult relationship with novels. I sometimes wonder what’s the point of a fictional story. And should I really spend frivolous time on novels when I haven’t yet even read the complete works of Aristotle, where surely more truth is to be found? Dickens is my favourite author but I always feel a …
The Discovery of Free Will
June 14, 2012
Humanity has a great history of exploration and discovery. Great landmarks of civilization include Columbus discovering the Americas and Amundsen reaching the South Pole ahead of Scott. We can also think of Faraday explaining electricity for the first time, Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection and the discovery of penicillin. Some of our top …
Spirit and Supernature
April 7, 2012
It’s the Easter vacation, which for Christians is one of the holiest times. I’ve never made a secret of the fact that I don’t have a religious bone in my body. But I cannot deny the deep feelings of spirituality that many others have. Countless educated and rational people believe in a God, spirits and …
Chopsticks
April 3, 2012
On a recent visit to the University of Nottingham campus at Ningbo, China, I came across a creative writing reading group. They take turns to pen very short stories of no more than 600 words that they can discuss together. I mentioned that I loved writing but had never attempted fiction. An invitation – perhaps …
Mahler’s 2nd
March 26, 2012
Life, death, its meaning, resurrection. On Saturday 24th March an audience at Nottingham’s Albert Hall were treated to an insight into all of the above when they attended a performance of Mahler’s epic second symphony. The event was staged by the Lakeside Arts Centre and included around 200 performers from the University of Nottingham orchestra …
The Outlet
December 22, 2011
The impulse for an artistic outlet is a common one. In singing, acting, drawing, poetry, prose and in making artefacts, it seems that we are expressing our creative urges. Such instincts are often crushed by situation, if people have to spend a lifetime of drudgery, for instance. But give someone leisure time and resource and …
Equivalent VIII
December 18, 2011
What is art? Does it have a defining essence? Many have attempted to find it yet so many of the definitions seem flawed. Only a few hundred years ago, for instance, we thought of art as being about the faithful representation of a subject matter, such as in a portrait or landscape. But we are …
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