The working class hero in arts and letters continues to capture the modern imagination, whatever your political bent. It’s rarer to see in the logical sciences, where pure a priori judgements are prized, those that insist on a kind of hands-off knowledge independent of experience.The writings of J. B. S. Haldane seem to be an […]

To find oneself in possession of a restored vitality is not the same as what it means to be accorded more or less mortality, but could be what aids it. It’s an improbable formulation that might help to explain an otherwise odd concern brought to my awareness in a book review by Norwegian author Karl […]

People who are not embarrassed to admit having read and enjoyed Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain probably aren’t squeamish either about swimming in public pools. Regrettably, I can’t lay claim to either set. Nonetheless, if you think about it long enough (which could be my problem), the literary example of Hans Castorp can be swapped […]

The memory of a founding event is said to be called up periodically in the interest of preserving historical continuity. A skeptic would add it’s in order to re-instantiate previous authority. Both are wrong, or at least don’t give the full story, for two reasons. First, continuity doesn’t work that way. There is not an […]