"natural theology > notes > 2016

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Bernays, Edward, and Mark Crispin Miller (Introduction), Propaganda, Ig Publishing 2004 'A seminal and controversial figure in the history of political thought and public relations, Edward Bernays (1891–1995), pioneered the scientific technique of shaping and manipulating public opinion, which he famously dubbed “engineering of consent.” During World War I, he was an integral part of the U.S. Committee on Public Information (CPI), a powerful propaganda apparatus that was mobilized to package, advertise and sell the war to the American people as one that would “Make the World Safe for Democracy.” The CPI would become the blueprint in which marketing strategies for future wars would be based upon.'
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Christie, Agatha, Murder at the Vicarage, Dodd Mead 1986 Amnazon customer review: 'Murder at the Vicarage, first published in 1930, is the book that first introduced the world to Miss Jane Marple and the cozy English village of St. Mary Mead. Every mystery fan in the world is or should be familiar with Christie's classic character of Miss Marple. This book presents her at her best and is required reading for any mystery fan. The writing is sharp, the plotting crisp and clever, there are many red herrings and the solution is very satisfying. This is Christie at her very best. Highly recommended.' Lisa Bahrami
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de Jonge, Alex, Stalin: and the Shaping of the Soviet Union, William Morrow & Co 1986 Editorial review: From Library Journal: 'De Jonge has written a provocative biography of this major figure of Soviet history. He has drawn heavily upon emigre accounts and diplomatic reports; all the same his study is not free of superficialities. He sharply criticizes Stalin's rivals and his World War II allies, and he hides nothing of Stalin's savagery. Yet de Jonge's conclusions, sure to be challenged, are also clear: Russia could never have become a superpower without coercion (the national work ethic being what it is), and, in exercising that coercion, Stalin enjoyed support from every level of Soviet society. This biography will not replace Adam Ulam's Stalin: the man and his era (1973), but it is a useful, clear-eyed introduction for the general reader.' R.H. Johnston, History Dept., McMaster Univ., Hamilton, Ontario Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Hiaasen, Carl Hiaasen, Stormy Weather, Grand Central Publishing 1996 From Library Journal 'Take one devastating Florida hurricane, a New York couple on their honeymoon, a skull-juggling but sensitive guy, one former governor turned Everglades hermit, two small-time con artists, a corrupt building inspector, two state troopers, a hapless insurance agent, and what do you have? The recipe for Hiaasen's (Native Tongue, LJ 9/1/91) sixth novel, a delightful romp that is by turns hilarious and moving. These strange characters maneuver through a broken landscape as if born to it, and the author's control of both style and narrative keeps the novel from slipping into silliness. The crimes plotted are minor aspects of a fiction that explores the intersection of the grotesque and the human. Buy wherever good fiction is read.' A.J. Wright,
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Kahneman, Daniel, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2011 'Daniel Kahneman is among the most influential psychologists in history and certainly the most important psychologist alive today. He has a gift for uncovering remarkable features of the human mind, many of which have become textbook classics and part of the conventional wisdom. His work has reshaped social psychology, cognitive science, the study of reason and of happiness, and behavioral economics, a field that he and his collaborator Amos Tversky helped to launch. The appearance of Thinking, Fast and Slow is a major event.' —Steven Pinker
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Keane, John, The Life and Death of Democracy, Pocket Books/Simon & Schuster 2009 Jacket: 'JK's The Life and Death of Democracy will inspire and shock its readers.Presenting the first grand history of democracy for well over a century, it poses along the way some tough and timely questions: can we really be sore that democracy had its origins in ancient Greece? How did democratic ideals and institutions come to have the shape they do today? . . . '
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Keynes, Randal, Annie's Box: Charles Darwin, his Daughter and Human Evolution, Riverhead Hardcover 2002 Editorial Reviews From Publishers Weekly 'In this intimate portrait of the great naturalist as devoted family man, Keynes describes how Charles Darwin's "life and his science were all of a piece." The great-great-grandson of the scientist, Keynes uses published documents as well as family papers and artifacts to show how Darwin's thinking on evolution was influenced by his deep attachment to his wife and children. In particular, his anguish over his 10-year-old daughter Annie's death sharpened his conviction that the operation of natural laws had nothing to do with divine intervention or morality. Keynes, also a descendant of economist John Maynard Keynes, shows that much of Darwin's intellectual struggle in writing On the Origin of Species and The Descent of Man arose from his efforts to understand the role of suffering and death in the natural order of the world. Early in his career, Darwin saw the indifference of natural law as an answer to the era's religious doubts about how a benevolent god could permit human misery; cruelty and pain, he argued, should not be seen as moral issues, but as inevitable outcomes of nature. After Annie's death, however, Darwin's views darkened, and in a private letter he railed against the "clumsy, wasteful, blundering low and horridly cruel works of nature!" Though Keynes doesn't break new ground about Darwin's life and work, he produces a moving tribute to a thinker who, despite intimate acquaintance with the pain inflicted by the "war of nature," could still marvel that, from this ruthless struggle, "endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved." ... ' Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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McGregor, Richard, The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers, Harper 2010 Amazon editorial review: From Publishers Weekly 'McGregor, a journalist at the Financial Times, begins his revelatory and scrupulously reported book with a provocative comparison between China's Communist Party and the Vatican for their shared cultures of secrecy, pervasive influence, and impenetrability. The author pulls back the curtain on the Party to consider its influence over the industrial economy, military, and local governments. McGregor describes a system operating on a Leninist blueprint and deeply at odds with Western standards of management and transparency. Corruption and the tension between decentralization and national control are recurring themes--and are highlighted in the Party™s handling of the disturbing Sanlu case, in which thousands of babies were poisoned by contaminated milk powder. McGregor makes a clear and convincing case that the 1989 backlash against the Party, inexorable globalization, and technological innovations in communication have made it incumbent on the Party to evolve, and this smart, authoritative book provides valuable insight into how it has--and has not--met the challenge. ' Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Milburn, Gerard J, The Feynman Processor : Quantum Entanglement and the Computing Revolution , Perseus Jacket: 'Starting with a clear and concise description of the basic principles of quantum physics, Milburn goes on to introduce some of its most amazing, newly discovered (sic) phenomena, including quantum entanglement, the strangest property of what is already the strangest field of science. Quantum entanglement - which Einstein called "spooky action at a distance" - underlies the interdimensional connections that join seemingly unrelated events and objects. He shows how conventional computers cannot go on getting smaller and faster forever and how the unpredictability of matter at this level has enabled scientists to rethink the way that we could design, build and use the new "quantum computers". Finally Milburn takes us into the near future, when physicists and computer scientists will build new and incredible devices that will deliver a world of lightning-fast computers, unbreakable codes, and even the beginning of Star-trek like matter teleportation.'
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Mungello, David E, Leibniz and Confucianism: The Search for ASccord, The University press of Hawaii 1977 Jacket: 'In the closing years of the seventeenth century, one of the mot brilliant of modern European philosophers became actively involved in the search for intellectual and spiritual accord between Europe and China. In his search, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz entered the "Rites Controversy" on the side of the Jesuits, who had achieved positions of remarkable proximity to the Chinese throne. Yet forty years later, the optimism of their cause dimmed. Leibniz died in isolation in Hanover, the papacy ruled against the Jesuits in Rome, and in China there was growing distrust of the Christian missionaries by the monarchy.
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Packard, Vance, The Hidden Persuaders, Pocket Books 1975
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Pope Benedict XVI, and Peter Seewald, Last Testament, Bloomsbury Continuum 2016 'Pope Benedict made history by being the first Pope in over 700 years to resign from office. The Catholic Church the world over was stunned. Worn out by corruption in the Church and by an endless series of clerical sex scandals, he decided that the resolution of all these problems was outside his power for a man of his age.'
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Papers

Maddox, John, "Is biology now part of physics?", Nature, 306, 5941, 24 November 1983, page 311. "Reductionism is now almost a dirty word, especially in biology, but after 30 years of DNA it is high time that biologists paid attention to the question of what constitutes an explanation. back

Links

Bernard Keane, The birth of modernity, 'Nearly five hundred years ago, a German theologian published a paper on an obscure doctrinal point. It started a cascade of ideas that fundamentally shaped the modern world.' back

Domingo Faustino Sarmiento - Wikipedia, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (February 15, 1811 – September 11, 1888) was an Argentine activist, intellectual, writer, statesman and the seventh President of Argentina. His writing spanned a wide range of genres and topics, from journalism to autobiography, to political philosophy and history. He was a member of a group of intellectuals, known as the Generation of 1837, who had a great influence on nineteenth-century Argentina. He was particularly concerned with educational issues and was also an important influence on the region's literature.' back

Maximilien Robespierre - Wikipedia, Maximilien Robespierre - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794) was a French lawyer and politician. He was one of the best-known and most influential figures associated with period of the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror.' back

National Snow and Ice Data Centre, AecrticIce News and Analysis, 'Read scientific analysis on Arctic sea ice conditions. We provide an update during the first week of each month, or more frequently as conditions warrant.' back

Nicholas Morleson, By framing secular society as a Christian creation, Hanson's revival goes beyond simple racism, 'The populist right has seized on this new identity. By arguing that Muslims threaten the West’s Judeo-Christian and secular culture, it has propelled itself into positions of power in a number of countries, including Australia, France and the Netherlands. Like its European peers, One Nation has reacted to the growing presence of Islam in Australia by emphasising Western civilisation’s Judeo-Christian and secular identity, and by demonising Muslims as belonging to a religion incompatible with secularism.' back

vol VII: Notes

2016

Notes

Sunday 4 December 2016

Monday 5 December 2016

Tuesday 6 December 2016

Wednesday 7 December 2016

Thursday 8 December

Friday 9 December 2016

Saturday 10 December 2016

Further reading

Books

Papers

Links