This I Believe II (also known as This, Too, I Believe*)
© This I Believe, Inc.
Last week I read This I Believe, a collection of eighty essays in which people wrote about their deepest convictions or ideals. While meandering through the philosophy/religion shelves in my local library looking for Asimov's Guide to the Bible, my eyes fell upon This I Believe II. Lo! Fate. I checked it out, of course, and read it throughout the course of the week. The book's layout follows the format of the previous book: the editors (Jay Allison and Dan Gediman) introduce the This I Believe project. This introduction is followed by seventy-five essays. The book concludes with the editors' reflection on the This I Believe project and guidelines for submitting an essay. A year or so ago I wrote an essay titled "This I Believe", but it is too long and too broad for the kind of essay they are requesting.
This collection of essays seems to be composed entirely of contributions to the modern project, unlike the past collection which used essays from the 1950s project. In each essay, a person writes on an idea that shapes them and molds their thinking: "I believe in living with integrity", "I believe in strange blessings", "I believe in doing what I love", "I believe in living in the here and now", "I believe in living what you do every day". The writers use stories from their personal lives to explain why they believe this. I found this collection of essays to be enriching, if not as much as the previous collection -- perhaps because I read this too soon after reading the first collection. I should return to this book later when I'm not quite so full, so to speak.
The essays are submitted by people from all walks of life -- teenagers, old people, the nonreligious, Catholic priests. Many voices come from people who are new to the United States. (This I Believe is an NPR program and thus deals entirely with the stories of Americans.) I noticed that this collection of essays is less religious than the previous one. I am neither exhulting nor complaining: I prefer perspectives that aren't rooted in what I believe to be superstitious ideas, but the religious essays of the last book helped me get a better handle on religion's relationship with helping people to improve their lives.
If this program sounds interesting to you, you can listen to the podcast (updated every Monday with a 2-3 minute spoken essay) here.
* Not really, but I saw an opportunity.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Modern Science
Modern Science 1896 - 1945
© 2004 Ray Spangenburg and Diane Kit Moser
206 pages
I continued this week in a series that I began in the summer -- Spangenburg and Moser's "The History of Science" series, which is an update to their "On the Shoulders of Giants" series. As usual, the authors divide the book into two major sections and one minor one: the Physical Sciences, the Life Sciences, and Science and Society. The book's introduction and prologue work well to integrate this book into the rest of the series and to give the reader a broader perspective. There are ten chapters in all.
This period isn't my favorite period of science -- that probably goes to the 19th century -- but I found the book's content to be interesting. In the physical sciences, we learn about the beginnings of modern physics, starting with the discovery of X-rays and moving on from there -- to radiation and quantum theory and to all they entail. The author organize the Physical Sciences chapter along structural lines: its chapters include "The New Atom", "The New Universe, Part One", "The New Universe, Part Two", and then go into more particulars with "New Observations of the Universe" and "The Atom Split Asunder".
In the life sciences, we see the rise of antibiotics and insulin. Mendel's work is rediscovered and is applied toward Darwinian evolution. The eighth chapter concerns the search for ancestral historeis, including information on the various hoaxes like Piltdown. The third part of the book is new to this series, and focuses on Science and Society. In this particular book, the authors continue to look at medical quacks but also shine a light on the growing rise of women in science. Miniture biographies are woven throughout the book, and many are of women.
In essence, what I've come to expect of the authors: the book is short, concise, interesting, and informative. It may be geared toward a younger age-group than adults, but I find it useful to keep me apprised of the basics.
© 2004 Ray Spangenburg and Diane Kit Moser
206 pages
I continued this week in a series that I began in the summer -- Spangenburg and Moser's "The History of Science" series, which is an update to their "On the Shoulders of Giants" series. As usual, the authors divide the book into two major sections and one minor one: the Physical Sciences, the Life Sciences, and Science and Society. The book's introduction and prologue work well to integrate this book into the rest of the series and to give the reader a broader perspective. There are ten chapters in all.
This period isn't my favorite period of science -- that probably goes to the 19th century -- but I found the book's content to be interesting. In the physical sciences, we learn about the beginnings of modern physics, starting with the discovery of X-rays and moving on from there -- to radiation and quantum theory and to all they entail. The author organize the Physical Sciences chapter along structural lines: its chapters include "The New Atom", "The New Universe, Part One", "The New Universe, Part Two", and then go into more particulars with "New Observations of the Universe" and "The Atom Split Asunder".
In the life sciences, we see the rise of antibiotics and insulin. Mendel's work is rediscovered and is applied toward Darwinian evolution. The eighth chapter concerns the search for ancestral historeis, including information on the various hoaxes like Piltdown. The third part of the book is new to this series, and focuses on Science and Society. In this particular book, the authors continue to look at medical quacks but also shine a light on the growing rise of women in science. Miniture biographies are woven throughout the book, and many are of women.
In essence, what I've come to expect of the authors: the book is short, concise, interesting, and informative. It may be geared toward a younger age-group than adults, but I find it useful to keep me apprised of the basics.
Collapse
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
© 2005 Jared Diamond
560 pages plus index
A few years ago, I read Guns, Germs, and Steel by this same author, who put forth the idea that the success of world civilizations owes much to the surrounding natural environment. While this is obvious in some cases -- a dependence on water, for instance -- Diamond extends the hypothesis to the effect that the uses to which local flora and fauna could put by human civilizations, and examined the possible results. The book was stimulating, and I suspect that it began my habit of looking for connections between the social sciences and the "real" or physical sciences. I enjoyed the book very much, and so I looked forward to reading Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.
While in Guns, Germs, and Steel Diamond examined the growth of civilizations, in this book he examines factors relating to their collapse. He begins with a set of five factors that he believes all collapses share in common:
In part two, Diamond examines past societies: their rise and fall. The evidence that Diamond is forced to draw from is usually indirect: using historic trash to come to conclusions about the people who lived there -- their numbers and their economic situation. He also uses natural evidence likes tree rings and ice "cores" to track the natural health of the environment through the years that these societies were in existence. The historic societies he examines range from small villages in Greenland to the grand civilization of the Maya. He begins with Easter Island and moves to more recent societies like shogunate Japan. Not all societies represent failures: Japan is used as an example of how societies can learn to deal with their situations.
In part three, Diamond looks at modern societies. In chapter ten, he examines Rwanda: in chapter eleven he contrasts the Dominican Republic and Haiti: in chapters twelve and thirteen he focuses on the growth of China and the woes of Australia, in each examining their relationship to the natural world and its condition. He concludes the book with Part IV, "Practical Lessons". In this last part, he examines various reasons why societies make bad economic decisions. He lists a few --
There are a few others, but those are the ones that stuck out. The above constitutes chapter fourteen. In chapter fifteen he looks at the relationship between big business and the enviroment, examining ways that modern industries -- oil, logging, mining, fishing -- are dealing with environmental problems and increasing public awareness. Last, he deals with potential objections to ideas in the book and looks at reasons for hope.
All in all, I found the book to be very well-written. The conclusions that Diamond comes to from the available evidence in the the part on past civilizations where little written information is available seem fairly valid to me. Diamond explains environmental problems and their connection to human history with great detail and with a knack for getting the essence of his idea across. It is a good read -- taking me several days to work my way through it -- but if you're interested in history, economics, ecology, and the relationship between the three, I'd recommend the book to you.
© 2005 Jared Diamond
560 pages plus index
A few years ago, I read Guns, Germs, and Steel by this same author, who put forth the idea that the success of world civilizations owes much to the surrounding natural environment. While this is obvious in some cases -- a dependence on water, for instance -- Diamond extends the hypothesis to the effect that the uses to which local flora and fauna could put by human civilizations, and examined the possible results. The book was stimulating, and I suspect that it began my habit of looking for connections between the social sciences and the "real" or physical sciences. I enjoyed the book very much, and so I looked forward to reading Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.
While in Guns, Germs, and Steel Diamond examined the growth of civilizations, in this book he examines factors relating to their collapse. He begins with a set of five factors that he believes all collapses share in common:
- damage done to the environment by humans
- climate change (owing to non-human factors, historically)
- the presence or ability of hostile neighbors
- decreased support of friendly neighbors
- society's responses to the above issues.
In part two, Diamond examines past societies: their rise and fall. The evidence that Diamond is forced to draw from is usually indirect: using historic trash to come to conclusions about the people who lived there -- their numbers and their economic situation. He also uses natural evidence likes tree rings and ice "cores" to track the natural health of the environment through the years that these societies were in existence. The historic societies he examines range from small villages in Greenland to the grand civilization of the Maya. He begins with Easter Island and moves to more recent societies like shogunate Japan. Not all societies represent failures: Japan is used as an example of how societies can learn to deal with their situations.
In part three, Diamond looks at modern societies. In chapter ten, he examines Rwanda: in chapter eleven he contrasts the Dominican Republic and Haiti: in chapters twelve and thirteen he focuses on the growth of China and the woes of Australia, in each examining their relationship to the natural world and its condition. He concludes the book with Part IV, "Practical Lessons". In this last part, he examines various reasons why societies make bad economic decisions. He lists a few --
- failure to anticipate problems
- failures to perceive problems that already exist
- rationalizing bad behavior
- possessing values systems that run contrary to doing what's necessary
- being discouraged by unscceessful attempts at solution
There are a few others, but those are the ones that stuck out. The above constitutes chapter fourteen. In chapter fifteen he looks at the relationship between big business and the enviroment, examining ways that modern industries -- oil, logging, mining, fishing -- are dealing with environmental problems and increasing public awareness. Last, he deals with potential objections to ideas in the book and looks at reasons for hope.
All in all, I found the book to be very well-written. The conclusions that Diamond comes to from the available evidence in the the part on past civilizations where little written information is available seem fairly valid to me. Diamond explains environmental problems and their connection to human history with great detail and with a knack for getting the essence of his idea across. It is a good read -- taking me several days to work my way through it -- but if you're interested in history, economics, ecology, and the relationship between the three, I'd recommend the book to you.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
This Week at the Library (11/12)
Books this Update:
It took an entire semester, but circumstances finally got the better of me and disrupted my weekly cycle. I began with a book on skepticism by Michael Shermer entitled Why People Believe Weird Things. The book addresses the scientific method: its origins, its premises, and its usefulness. After examining a score or so of number fallacies, Shermer then examines "pseudoscience, superstition, and other confusions of our time". That phrase covers UFOs, Objectivisim, holocaust denial, evolution denial, and so on. He wraps the book up by looking at the basic biological and sociology reasons why people believe these things. I enjoyed it enormously.
Next I read The Knight in History by Frances Gies, which examines -- as you might expect -- the development of the mounted knight and its influence on European history. Gies does a good job of fitting the knight into its proper social, historical, and economic contexts. She does this week background chapters and then illustrates the various developments of knighthood through case-studies. I didn't expect much from this book (I have no real military interest) but found it very enjoyable.
Lastly I read a collection of essays from the This I Believe program. In said program, ordinary individuals share their personal beliefs -- the beliefs that tie their life together -- in a short essay. 80 essays are in this first collection. The worldviews range widely, and there were a number I disagreed with. Yet the book helped me. There were many insightful and touching essays that moved me, and I am very glad that I took the time to read it. I reccommend it.
Pick of the Week: This I Believe
Quotation of the Week: "I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand them." - Spinoza
Next Week:
- I don't know. I will probably resume the Colonization series and perhaps begin Asimov's Empire series.
- Why People Believe Weird Things, Michael Shermer
- The Knight in History, Frances Gies
- This I Believe, Jay Allison and Dan Gediman
It took an entire semester, but circumstances finally got the better of me and disrupted my weekly cycle. I began with a book on skepticism by Michael Shermer entitled Why People Believe Weird Things. The book addresses the scientific method: its origins, its premises, and its usefulness. After examining a score or so of number fallacies, Shermer then examines "pseudoscience, superstition, and other confusions of our time". That phrase covers UFOs, Objectivisim, holocaust denial, evolution denial, and so on. He wraps the book up by looking at the basic biological and sociology reasons why people believe these things. I enjoyed it enormously.
Next I read The Knight in History by Frances Gies, which examines -- as you might expect -- the development of the mounted knight and its influence on European history. Gies does a good job of fitting the knight into its proper social, historical, and economic contexts. She does this week background chapters and then illustrates the various developments of knighthood through case-studies. I didn't expect much from this book (I have no real military interest) but found it very enjoyable.
Lastly I read a collection of essays from the This I Believe program. In said program, ordinary individuals share their personal beliefs -- the beliefs that tie their life together -- in a short essay. 80 essays are in this first collection. The worldviews range widely, and there were a number I disagreed with. Yet the book helped me. There were many insightful and touching essays that moved me, and I am very glad that I took the time to read it. I reccommend it.
Pick of the Week: This I Believe
Quotation of the Week: "I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand them." - Spinoza
Next Week:
- I don't know. I will probably resume the Colonization series and perhaps begin Asimov's Empire series.
This I Believe
This I Believe: the Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women
Various authors, edited by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman
© 2006
For a few years now I've listened to an NPR feature called "This I Believe", wherein a variety of individuals present a personal belief that guides their lives. I almost always find that listening to this enriches my own life, giving me insights that I've never before had. As such, I was quite excited when I learned that some of the essays had been released in book collections. This week I read the first collection, and it was very enjoyable. The book consists of eighty such essays, with forewords and afterwords at the beginning and end of the book to introduce the series and explain the purpose of the books -- to share the personal beliefs of ordinary people.
This I Believe has existed in two distinct periods: the original program ran in the 1950s, and the current one runs still today. The book uses essays from both the 1950s and from the current program. While most of the stories do come from ordinary people, some essays come from more well-known personalities like Helen Keller, John McCain, Jackie Robinson, William Buckley Jr. , Bill Gates, Newt Gingrich, and so on. While some people view NPR as a bastion of liberality, you can see by some of the names cited that this collection that the range of worldviews is quite wide. There are eighty very distinct people here. I didn't agree with everything that was said, and I'm glad I didn't. The book would have been less useful, less enriching, if that had been the case.
The book is enormously, tremendously touching. Many essays brought tears to my eyes. This is a book I want in my personal library. I'm glad I had the chance to read it, and I recommend it to you.
Various authors, edited by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman
© 2006
For a few years now I've listened to an NPR feature called "This I Believe", wherein a variety of individuals present a personal belief that guides their lives. I almost always find that listening to this enriches my own life, giving me insights that I've never before had. As such, I was quite excited when I learned that some of the essays had been released in book collections. This week I read the first collection, and it was very enjoyable. The book consists of eighty such essays, with forewords and afterwords at the beginning and end of the book to introduce the series and explain the purpose of the books -- to share the personal beliefs of ordinary people.
This I Believe has existed in two distinct periods: the original program ran in the 1950s, and the current one runs still today. The book uses essays from both the 1950s and from the current program. While most of the stories do come from ordinary people, some essays come from more well-known personalities like Helen Keller, John McCain, Jackie Robinson, William Buckley Jr. , Bill Gates, Newt Gingrich, and so on. While some people view NPR as a bastion of liberality, you can see by some of the names cited that this collection that the range of worldviews is quite wide. There are eighty very distinct people here. I didn't agree with everything that was said, and I'm glad I didn't. The book would have been less useful, less enriching, if that had been the case.
The book is enormously, tremendously touching. Many essays brought tears to my eyes. This is a book I want in my personal library. I'm glad I had the chance to read it, and I recommend it to you.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
The Knight in History
The Knight in History
254 pages
Frances Gies
This week I read The Knight in History, written by France Gies. Typically she and her husband co-author novels, but not in this case. I was somewhat wary about this particular book because military history is not my interest, but Gies surprised me (very pleasantly so) by treating the knight in a broader social and political context. The book is divided into background chapters, intermixed with case-studies. The individual cases are from both English and French knighthood.
For background, Gies examines the transofrmation of Roman society into medieval society, charts the rise of feudalism and manorialism, examines the Crusades, and finally looks at the "long twilight of chilvary". Per persctive is that the knights were wealthy freemen who were charged by the Church to protect the peace, and that they developed into a class of their own that was connected to the lower nobility. The case-studies are generally military history, but do a fairly good job of connecting the historical narrative to reality.
As usual, the book is well-written and uses primary sources exhaustively, especially in the chapter on the troubadours. There's a lot to this book, and I reccommend it.
254 pages
Frances Gies
This week I read The Knight in History, written by France Gies. Typically she and her husband co-author novels, but not in this case. I was somewhat wary about this particular book because military history is not my interest, but Gies surprised me (very pleasantly so) by treating the knight in a broader social and political context. The book is divided into background chapters, intermixed with case-studies. The individual cases are from both English and French knighthood.
For background, Gies examines the transofrmation of Roman society into medieval society, charts the rise of feudalism and manorialism, examines the Crusades, and finally looks at the "long twilight of chilvary". Per persctive is that the knights were wealthy freemen who were charged by the Church to protect the peace, and that they developed into a class of their own that was connected to the lower nobility. The case-studies are generally military history, but do a fairly good job of connecting the historical narrative to reality.
As usual, the book is well-written and uses primary sources exhaustively, especially in the chapter on the troubadours. There's a lot to this book, and I reccommend it.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Why People Believe Weird Things
Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time
2nd edition © 2002, Michael Shermer
313 pages, plus extended bibliography and index
Having been a skeptic for a few years now, I've heard this book referenced a lot in conversations with fellow skeptics -- but I just recently found it while browsing in a book store. Michael Shermer is the founder of Skeptic magazine and the director of the Skeptics Society, so his is a name I've heard a lot about. He also lectures for the Science Network.
Beyond the introductions and prologue, the book is divided into five principle sections, each section containing a number of individual chapters: Science and Skepticism, Pseudoscience and Superstition, Evolution and Creationism,History and Pseudohistory, and Hope Springs Eternal. In the first part, Shermer introduces skepticism and the scientific method: he details how he became a skeptic, and then examines twenty-five logical fallacies that result in people believing odd things as well as probing errors in scientific thinking.
In the next chapter, he deals with the paranormal, out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences, "immortality" science, alien abductions, witch crazes, and the the cult of personality surrounding Ayn Rand and Objectivisim. I don't know much about Rand, although I heard her speak on NPR and disagreed with what she said regarding suicide and selfishness. (The interviewer asked her why she thought giving to other people was wrong, and she retorted with "What's wrong with suicide?" I don't think there's anything wrong with either.)
The next two chapters are more cohesive, in that each deals with the same central topic: evolution denial in one and Holocaust denial in the other. In each, Shermer introduces the conflict, explores why people deny it, and then counters their arguments and explores why they believe the way they do. The section on Holocaust denial provided miniature biographies of various deniers, including David Irving. Last year while doing a paper on the Luftwaffe, I accidently picked up an Irving book before becoming aware of his reputation. Fortunately, the book I took notes from was published before he started his denial business.
Lastly, Shermer looks as why people believe weird things -- he looks at their motives. Some petential reasons he points out are immediate gratification and the power and immortality of hope and its influence on the human psyche. The book is well-written and well-organized in my estimation. Shermer never confuses me, even when he's writing on abstract or complicated ideas. I wouldn't try reading it all at once, though: I think it's a book that deserves slow and gradual consideration. I read it over a period of days, mulling over the ideas therein. I must reccommend it.
2nd edition © 2002, Michael Shermer
313 pages, plus extended bibliography and index
Having been a skeptic for a few years now, I've heard this book referenced a lot in conversations with fellow skeptics -- but I just recently found it while browsing in a book store. Michael Shermer is the founder of Skeptic magazine and the director of the Skeptics Society, so his is a name I've heard a lot about. He also lectures for the Science Network.
Beyond the introductions and prologue, the book is divided into five principle sections, each section containing a number of individual chapters: Science and Skepticism, Pseudoscience and Superstition, Evolution and Creationism,History and Pseudohistory, and Hope Springs Eternal. In the first part, Shermer introduces skepticism and the scientific method: he details how he became a skeptic, and then examines twenty-five logical fallacies that result in people believing odd things as well as probing errors in scientific thinking.
In the next chapter, he deals with the paranormal, out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences, "immortality" science, alien abductions, witch crazes, and the the cult of personality surrounding Ayn Rand and Objectivisim. I don't know much about Rand, although I heard her speak on NPR and disagreed with what she said regarding suicide and selfishness. (The interviewer asked her why she thought giving to other people was wrong, and she retorted with "What's wrong with suicide?" I don't think there's anything wrong with either.)
The next two chapters are more cohesive, in that each deals with the same central topic: evolution denial in one and Holocaust denial in the other. In each, Shermer introduces the conflict, explores why people deny it, and then counters their arguments and explores why they believe the way they do. The section on Holocaust denial provided miniature biographies of various deniers, including David Irving. Last year while doing a paper on the Luftwaffe, I accidently picked up an Irving book before becoming aware of his reputation. Fortunately, the book I took notes from was published before he started his denial business.
Lastly, Shermer looks as why people believe weird things -- he looks at their motives. Some petential reasons he points out are immediate gratification and the power and immortality of hope and its influence on the human psyche. The book is well-written and well-organized in my estimation. Shermer never confuses me, even when he's writing on abstract or complicated ideas. I wouldn't try reading it all at once, though: I think it's a book that deserves slow and gradual consideration. I read it over a period of days, mulling over the ideas therein. I must reccommend it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)