Michael Flynn's Blog, page 71

The Ghost in the Machine, Again

The Auld Problem

James Chastek comments on Stephen Pinker's refutation of the soul (as envisaged by S. Pinker). 

How does the spook interact with solid matter? How does an ethereal nothing respond to flashes, pokes and beeps and get arms and legs to move?

Ah yes, the interaction problem. Is that still around? Apparently so.

By "spook," Pinker evidently means the "soul."  But the use of the term betrays a profound misunderstanding of what traditional philosophers have meant by that...

6 June

D-Day is Tomorrow


I put this up last year, too.  The message is eternal. 

A Moment of Thanks

  Memorial Day

 

My father's cousin: Sgt. Tommy Flynn, USMC, Vietnam.
Lived with villagers in the mountains: CAP team, Papa Three, near Cam Lo just a few miles south of the DMZ, as described in A Voice of Hope



My father:
Pfc. Joseph Flynn, 5th Eng. Btn., 5th Marine Division, USMC
Iwo Jima, Japanese Occupation

My grandfather:
Pfc. Harry Singley, 304th Eng., 72nd "Rainbow" Div., AEF
St. Mihel, Meuse-Argonne Offensive
"a little shrapnel in the leg, a whiff of gas"

My wife's...

Three in One

Trinity Sunday

Okay, I'm a day late, but I thought it would be amusing to consider the justification of the Trinity.  To many folks the whole idea seems wildly contradictory, and makes one wonder why so many very smart people had no problem with it.  There are two possibilities.  Those very smart people weren't so smart or we just don't get it. 

The latter is not beyond possibility.  The folks of those days operated with different categories of thought than we do.  Many of them used the system...

Da Movies

You Don't Have to Be Hollywood

to gives things the Hollywood treatment.  There is a movie out about the burning of the "second library of Alexandria" and the murder of Hypatia that plays all the long-debunked myths of Gibbons.  There is a review of it here at Armarium Magnum


Hey, she looks pretty hot for a philosopher who was in her fifties at the time she was murdered.  (And yes, we know.  She is wearing First Century garb in the Fifth Century.  So do the Roman soldiers, who wear the lorica s...

At the DVD Player

Two Pretty Good Movies

But they might be hard to find. 
The Grand Tour

The first has been marketed under various titles, and is based on the story "Vintage Season" by C.L.Moore.  It has been called Timescape, The Grand Tour, and Disaster in Time.  Originally planned for theaters, it came out instead on TV - HBO iirc - and then video.  I think this was because the low budget made certain effects less than spectacular; but -- call me a cynic -- also because the story line did not have the action-...

Now This is Funny

Iron Baby

h/t John Wright

Sometimes

Sometimes, the Mask Slips, a Little....

In an interview published by Spanish language newspaper La Vanguardia [Woody:] Allen says “I am pleased with Obama. I think he’s brilliant. The Republican Party should get out of his way and stop trying to hurt him.”

But wait - there's more!

The director said "it would be good…if he could be a dictator for a few years because he could do a lot of good things quickly."

Woody, Woody, shouldn't you try to hide it a bit more? 

Well, it's Fox News, and...

My Fan

Good Advice

I ran across the following letter on another message board.  I copy it here together with a follow-up but without the fellow's name.

Mark, thought you'd want to know: I just finished Mike Flynn's The January Dancer . Oh my freaking good golly, Mark, it is stunning. I am at an utter loss for words. I didn't think anything could top Eifelheim for emotional impact, but TJD does.

On to Up Jim River !
I cannot find it in me to disagree.  He responds to a comment as follows

I have been...

Speaking in general

Quote of the Day

We shouldn’t generalize about generalizations. They’re not all the same.-- Ed Feser