From Bruno Latour on 'eliminitivism'
My former colleague in San Diego, the neurophilosopher Paul Churchland (Churchland, 1986), carries in his wallet a colour picture of his wife. Nothing surprising in it, except it is the colour scan of his wife’…
I realised on review that my previous message wasn't particularly helpful because it unpicks the problem without proposing any apparent alternative though I (and I think others responding here) do have an alternative in mind, which is anthropology a…
But if the abstract relating concept/phrase for 'believe' is 'hold something to be true', then Bacon is saying something very strange when he says that there is a 'great' 'affinity' between 'fiction' and 'holding something to be true'. This would ma…
Of course ideal sentences are a standard recourse of analytic philosophy and cognitive psychology. My mini-polemic has to do with 'context of use' a la Malinowski. Only one of the dictionary usages you cite operates in a way similar to Maher's ideal…
'Belief' here has been denatured by Maher to serve as a cognitive scientist's straw man. Belief has a historical contextual meaning, amongst other things, vis-a-vis notions and practices of heresy, doctrine, faith and sincerity as the practice of co…
One point that is significant then is that use implies both depletion and active regeneration. Does it necessarily weigh on the idea of endurance of resource? That is, to say that, despite the knowledge that community is dependent on perspectives, t…
'Use' (Bendedicte) and 'empathy' (Geoff) have some commonalities vis-a-vis reciprocity which has a formal logical quality to it (even if it is driven by a religious-immanent imperative - the hau of the thing). Intuitively, I think Geoff is right, th…
Becky has voiced her opinion (below) very extensively, and produced some reasons to support it: she has even found someone who supports her perspective. That seems a fair outcome and nobody's loss.
I want Governments to free up the web so that com…
J, We have now established that you are opposed to people contributing to Wikis. The logical relationship of this wikiphobia to other to other kinds of labour, such as writing course essays when you have already 'paid' for your course remains obscur…
Yes it all depends on what we mean by sharing and reciprocating (he said in ponderous tone of voice)...
It seems to me that Kant is a pretty good candidate for the idea that reciprocity is a universal mode of thought. In the Critique of Pure Reason…
I think "bricolage" really fits with the spirit of Levi-Strauss, with "found poems", and with the craft of writing. The idea of "bricolage" didn't occur to me, so I'm happy with your contribution! I had used "mangled" unconsciously, and I presume it's due to corruption of my language by "pirate-speak". (On another front, I've been at a loss - for a while - whether Levi has an "accent aigue" or not).
At 10:06am on October 16, 2009, Martin Walsh said…
Thanks! I recently started a new full-time job (at Oxfam GB) and so am only dipping into OAC occasionally.
If by ERD you mean "Entity Relationship Diagrams," no. These are social network diagrams. The important difference here is that ERD diagrams are constructed in advance as part of a database planning process. Their purpose is to eliminate many-to-many relationships and replace them with many-to-one and one-to-many relationships joined through link tables and thus solve a technical issue in database design. Social network diagrams can be drawn by hand but are now more normally software generated using network data. There is a good article on network visualizations at
http://www.cmu.edu/joss/content/articles/volume1/Freeman.html
Lin Freeman, the author, is one of the grand old men of network analysis and been there since the beginning.
Well, of course, Huon, it's never just one thing. Collective decisions tend to be "overdetermined," as the psychologists say. So the alleviation of guilt, or in some cases shame, is just one influence. (Britain of course has less to be ashamed of than most European countries. True, there was not much interest in the death camps, and no efforts to stop them, say by bombing the train connections. But indifference is not collaboration or enthusiasm.)
Material interests play a part. It is always easier to be compassionate to folks who have a lot of oil that you need, isn't it? And Middle Eastern countries are importers of industrial goods, and some agricultural goods as well. So it's nice to be friends with folks who will buy things from you. Tiny Israel is not much of an importer; worse, as a country with an advanced industrial sector, it is a competitor, in computer stuff, armaments, etc. No, it's clear you want to be on the side of those who have stuff you want, and who will buy your stuff, i.e. with the Arabs & Iranians and against the Jews.
Why is it antisemitic to criticize Israel? It is the double standard that makes it antisemitic. No amount of despotism, no amount of oppression, no amount of ethnic cleansing, no amount of attrocities, no amount of aggression ever brings serious criticism of the Arabs countries or other Muslim countries. They always get a free pass. If and when Israel--the only advanced, democratic country in the region--tries to defend itself, it is condemned from all sides. If this weren't so tragic, it would be hilarious.
You said, "for one individual to insist that many others may not use the word 'open' is a much greater harm than that two different groups of people should use the same word in their distinct ways or contrary ways. It is pleasant to be polite and to respect other people's metaphysics, however, politeness has a limit beyond which it becomes a personal flaw with serious consequences. If we accept the force of 'You may not use this word because I use it already' then we are agreeing to the rules of a dangerous game."
Huon, while we have had our disagreements on other issues, this is a point on which we can agree. And you put it well. It seems to me that Max is a bit of a bully, and a bit low on tolerance and inclusiveness.
it was a mistake i clicked by error SIGN OUT and allmy page disappeared except of the photo. So, i have two...identities , one of the past as a memory living in the pages of my friends and one of the present. Just think about this metaphor as an anthropological issue...
I have to admitt that it was a little exaggeration, also it is too ambigous.
:) Maybe I should make it more specific with some additional explanation in the description part, so I am taking your's as an advice.. thanks.