
Poetry
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part XII - The Enfant Terrible of Literature
Samuel Butler Notebooks (2004) p. 153.
Criticism
Poetry
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part XII - The Enfant Terrible of Literature
“If the brain were so simple we could understand it, we would be so simple we couldn't.”
Lyall Watson
Neverness (1988)
The Storm Over the University (December 6, 1990)
Context: You need to know enough philosophy so that the methods of logical analysis are available to you to be used as a tool. One of the most depressing things about educated people today is that so few of them, even among professional intellectuals, are able to follow the steps of a simple logical argument.
“If our brains were simple enough for us to understand them, we'd be so simple that we couldn't.”
Source: The Collapse of Chaos: Discovering Simplicity in a Complex World
To question genetic intelligence is not racism (2007)
Context: We do not yet adequately understand the way in which the different environments in the world have selected over time the genes which determine our capacity to do different things. The overwhelming desire of society today is to assume that equal powers of reason are a universal heritage of humanity. It may well be. But simply wanting this to be the case is not enough. This is not science.
To question this is not to give in to racism. This is not a discussion about superiority or inferiority, it is about seeking to understand differences, about why some of us are great musicians and others great engineers. It is very likely that at least some 10 to 15 years will pass before we get an adequate understanding for the relative importance of nature versus nurture in the achievement of important human objectives. Until then, we as scientists, wherever we wish to place ourselves in this great debate, should take care in claiming what are unarguable truths without the support of evidence.
Ted Nelson motto http://sydney.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=6681
On Martin Luther King, Jr.
America The Beautiful (2010)