Alexander > Recent Status Updates

tl;dr animals like pretty things because they are pretty, not because they confer any survival advantage

The closest book to Plato this side of the 20th century - with a bit of twisting free thrown in.

The ease with which Weyl moves between art history, science, math, and philosophy is incredible - this is how I want to be able to see the world.

Been doing alot of reading into thermodynamics recently, but this has the clearest exposition of entropy yet. A nice 'ah-ha' moment here.

Biochemistry. Biochemistry everywhere.

This tailed off in quality after the intro and picked back up again in the discussion of ecology. Schneider being an ecosystems guy, it's easy to see why.

Far out, the critique of democracy here is devestating, and I'm gonna be thinking about this for weeks.

I'm super impressed with this already. I was expecting this to be alot more pop-sciency than it is, but the authors aren't afraid of actually discussing the science in some depth without resorting to fanciful metaphors as if their reader isn't up to the challenge (as alot of pop-sci does). Nothing worse than watered-down discussion, and this isn't it.

Crazy impressed by this book so far. Picked it up after seeing it referenced by both Alicia Juarrero and... Nick Land, of all people, which I thought was odd given this book's seeming obscurity. But its fantastic. This is now the second work of mathematical biology I've read (the other being Rob Rosen's Life Itself), and I definitely need to explore this field more.

Remind me to be better at math.

Every word I read I swoon. Just... effervescent.

Opening line: "To death we are not accustomed". Yup, it's definitely Blanchot.

Opening line: "To death we are not accustomed". Yup, it's definately Blanchot.

'In order for any philosophical invention worthy of its name to arise, concepts must first cross the limit of traditional metaphysics. They must first reach the space beyond-enclosure of tradition ... If a concept or a philosophical thought are able to return, to recover their vitality, that is, their future, then they must do it from the end of metaphysics, they must be able to leap though this ring [of fire]'.

"In the end, Meillassoux's highly idiosyncratic approach fails to open up any prospect of real alterity. We were expecting an explosion. We were expecting a revolution - the revolution of the Copernican Revolution. But nothing changes. Nothing happens. Where's the surprise? Where's the metamorphosis? Above all, what's this 'after' that leaves everything untouched?". Boom.

Ahh, I'm loving the audacity of this book. Basically Malabou hitches the fate of the entire transcendental tradition - and continental philosophy itself - on the interpretation of a *single paragraph* in Kant's CPR - §27, regarding, in Kant's words, the "system of the epigenesis of pure reason". And if this is going where I think it is, Meillassoux is in for a hiding.

Just past the introduction and I'm absolutely, totally hooked. I've always thought of Derrida as the philosophical epigeneticist par excellence, so I'm itching to see - given Malabou's distance from him - just how she takes up the theme. Otherwise, she's so far trying to resolve the mystery of the status of the Kantian transcendental via epigenetic means - and I'm so, so on board with that.

Some more local-oriented reading, following the one on economics. Law, this time.

Hmm, this book does more to map the sociological landscape of biopolitics - trends, technologies, interests, and scope - than it does to engage with a 'philosophy' of biopolitics. Which I guess it what it says on the cover, but damn, I was hoping for a bit more of the latter. Not bad so far tho.

Phew. Back to grappling with concepts. I mean seriously, all it took was reading one book of mostly facts - economic facts - to make me appreciate again the awesome athleticism of concept-mongering. Facts are just so... slippery, ephemeral. On this at least, Hegel was right.

Some local reading....