Neuroscience is finding what propaganda has long known: nostalgia doesn’t need real memories – an imagined past works too He was still too young to know that the heart’s memory eliminates the bad and magnifies the good, and that thanks to this artifice we manage to endure the burden of the past. But when he […]
There should never be heroes in science
Some scientists make their careers by criticising other’s research. But who watches the watchmen? …those self-critical, self-correcting principles of science simply don’t allow for hero-worship. Even the strongest critics of science need themselves to be criticised; those who raise the biggest questions about the way we do research need themselves to be questioned. Healthy science […]
The adversarial culture in philosophy does not serve the truth
we clearly risk our reputation much more when proposing an idea rather than criticising it. This systematically disadvantages proponents of (new) ideas. every argument is vulnerable to potential criticism. If this is correct, then mistakes or the options of finding them abound. By contrast, philosophical claims that will go unchallenged are extremely rare. This means […]
Confusion and ambiguity
A mix of stimuli always surrounds people. The stimuli have no meaning apart from what the individuals make of it. In other words, the environment is a product of the persons, not something outside of them. If people want to create shared meaning, they need to talk about their experience in close proximity to its […]
Changing the conversation
Transforming our institutions of conversation. Changing the way we communicate is the way we change organizations. Changing the conversation is about understanding and influencing participation. It is often about asking different kind of questions and pointing to different kinds of issues. There can be no change without changes in the patterns of communication. The goal […]