[bracketing the big topics]
Posted in Mind Works on Jun 22nd, 2010
In den letzten zwei Tagen gab es in Dieburg Diplomkolloquien. Kluge junge Leute mit leicht geröteten Ohren haben, mal selbstbewusst, mal eher schüchtern verteidigt, was sie in den letzten drei Monaten erarbeitet haben. Wir Lehrenden stehen dabei selbst immer mit auf dem Prüfstand. Gottseidank sind die Diplomanden meist viel zu aufgeregt, um das zu merken.
Ein [...]
Posted in Famous First Words, Mind Works, Online Publishing, Social Engineering on Jan 9th, 2010
2009 war für mich persönlich ein annus horribilis, das vor allem im Zeichen trauriger familiärer und privater Ereignisse stand. Gleichzeitig war es aber auch ein Jahr, in dem sich objektive, zeitgeschichtliche Prozesse mehr und mehr in den Vordergrund gedrängt haben. Ereignisse wie die fortgesetzte Finanzkrise und die völlig inadäquate, hilflose Antwort der Politik auf diese [...]
Posted in Mind Works on May 18th, 2009
The book I’m currently reading is called “The Secret Life of Citizens”. It’s a very good book, but I have to admit that I haven’t quite understood its title, yet. In another book by the same author I found the following beautiful quote:And sitting on the St. Germain des Prés I would sometimes think about [...]
Posted in Mind Works on Feb 16th, 2009
Death is a lesson. Cancer is an education.
Posted in Celebration, Mind Works on Dec 6th, 2008
After talking about courage as the worthiest of virtues it is time to praise another one of highest, probably equal rank: the ability to enter other peoples minds and hearts, to see the world with their eyes, to suffer their pains, to cherish their joys. This is a capacity essential to what people these days [...]
Posted in Mind Works on Nov 27th, 2008
Among the many virtues one can strive for I find courage of most value. Of course courage is most impressive when combined with wits, but intelligence without courage is something that leaves me underwhelmed.
Courage is required on so many levels, starting with observation: What do I dare to see in a situation? Lack of [...]
Posted in Celebration, Mind Works on Mar 25th, 2008
Standing in front of my bookshelves today I randomly picked out a book from the philosophy section called “The Thinking Self”, by Jay Rosenberg. Rosenberg, student of the late great US philosopher Wilfrid Sellars and author of one of the best introductions into the craft of philosophizing (german version), was a Humboldt scholar and guest [...]
Posted in Mind Works on Oct 24th, 2007
Daniel Dennett is one of the heroes of my philosophical past. At the time I started reading philosophy of mind in the early 80s, he was cult, and it seems he’s never ceased to be, expanding his field of expertise from theories of consciousness to the topic of evolution and others.
Recently Dennett has joined the [...]
Posted in Mind Works on Sep 20th, 2007
Some years ago I started to define myself again as a political person. Politics re-entered my life on a micro level, mostly due to the immediate political context of my work. But I also put some effort into getting a grasp of bigger topics, like globalization, european integration or global security issues. I read political [...]
Posted in Mind Works on Jul 31st, 2007
After many years of mental work I’ve come to acknowledge the fact that during nearly every solitary creative effort there is a bottleneck period. Subjectively it feels mostly like a painful phase of muddle-headed emptiness of the conscious mind. External input, be it through reading, talk, or any less-processed stimuli of the senses seems to [...]