tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post6676302232937413661..comments2024-03-28T17:44:11.289+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: The demotivating effect of Residual Unresolved Positivism (RUP) - and the instant cure!Bruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-4370910888009108942015-12-31T00:37:33.513+00:002015-12-31T00:37:33.513+00:00Bruce - I'm fantasising here, but if I was an ...Bruce - I'm fantasising here, but if I was an 18 year old, I'd sign up like a shot!<br /><br />With your background, skills and academic position, you seem to me to be well placed to create (or at least propose) a new and exciting degree combining theology, literature, psychology, philosophy and evolutionary theory. A degree that would encompass body, mind and spirit. Like many undergraduate degrees it could start in the first year with compulsory modules in all five main subjects. The second year's modules would be combinations of two or more main subject areas. The third year would be fewer modules plus a dissertation combining at least three of the subject areas.<br /><br />I think you could rely on the students to come up with fascinating dissertation titles after such an education.<br /><br />An optional year between the second and third year at Heythrop College studying pure Divinity would gain the student a Masters.<br /><br />There's a thirst out there for a metaphysical pathway to explain everything. Souls are parched in a desert of endless consumption, greed, and "the pursuit of happiness".<br /><br />For the compulsory book list:<br /><br />Rudolf Steiner - Christianity as Mystical Fact<br />Robert Graves - The White Goddess<br />Robert Graves - King Jesus<br />S.T. Coleridge - Collected Works<br />Bible<br />Tolkien - All<br />CS Lewis - Screwtape Letters<br /><br />Just thoughts.<br /><br />The pharisaic biologists and their arid paradigm need challenging. The best way must surely be to take their subject and make it a part of something bigger and grander, full of imagination, wonder and the spirit. Its got to be done by somebody to help stimulate a great Christian revival. <br /><br />Geraint Aptedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12075642140133860559noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-33377696506058688122015-12-30T22:37:02.917+00:002015-12-30T22:37:02.917+00:00@ajb - Ah! - the pleasure of satisfying a discerni...@ajb - Ah! - the pleasure of satisfying a discerning critic!Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-70325207997836237262015-12-30T20:49:32.773+00:002015-12-30T20:49:32.773+00:00Interesting and insightful post. It resonates with...Interesting and insightful post. It resonates with me as the reason I was dissatisfied with much of academic philosophy.ajbhttp://makingsenseofchristianity.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-87221345524627038372015-12-30T20:43:46.229+00:002015-12-30T20:43:46.229+00:00I'm reading Steiner's "Christianity a...I'm reading Steiner's "Christianity as Mystical Fact" and Tolstoy's "War and Peace" alternately, and finding they are resonating with each other. The temporal, transient, as opposed to the eternal and spiritual in War and Peace contrast in a stark way more than they would if I were not reading Steiner at the same time.<br /><br /><br />“Heraclitus speaks vehemently against Homer and Hesiod, and the learned men of his day. He wished to show up their way of thinking, which remains bound to the transitory only. He did not want gods endowed with qualities taken from a perishable world, and he could not regard as the highest form of science one that investigates the becoming and passing away of things. For him the eternal speaks out of the perishable ….”.<br /><br />Rudolf Steiner, Christianity as Mystical Fact<br /><br /><br />You said, "I have been trying to finish a big theoretical paper on the subject of Group Selection in Biology (from the perspective of Systems Theory)".<br /><br />You are writing the paper firmly within the biological paradigm for an audience of atheists, but you could write a higher version written within the paradigm of the spirit for a different audience.<br /><br />The biologists would scoff, but others wouldn’t.<br /><br /><br />The above quote from Steiner’s book might as well say Bruce Charlton instead of Heraclitus. It would be just as true.Geraint Aptedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12075642140133860559noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-17139653030967219642015-12-30T20:43:16.571+00:002015-12-30T20:43:16.571+00:00I'm reading Steiner's "Christianity a...I'm reading Steiner's "Christianity as Mystical Fact" and Tolstoy's "War and Peace" alternately, and finding they are resonating with each other. The temporal, transient, as opposed to the eternal and spiritual in War and Peace contrast in a stark way more than they would if I were not reading Steiner at the same time.<br /><br /><br />“Heraclitus speaks vehemently against Homer and Hesiod, and the learned men of his day. He wished to show up their way of thinking, which remains bound to the transitory only. He did not want gods endowed with qualities taken from a perishable world, and he could not regard as the highest form of science one that investigates the becoming and passing away of things. For him the eternal speaks out of the perishable ….”.<br /><br />Rudolf Steiner, Christianity as Mystical Fact<br /><br /><br />You said, "I have been trying to finish a big theoretical paper on the subject of Group Selection in Biology (from the perspective of Systems Theory)".<br /><br />You are writing the paper firmly within the biological paradigm for an audience of atheists, but you could write a higher version written within the paradigm of the spirit for a different audience.<br /><br />The biologists would scoff, but others wouldn’t.<br /><br /><br />The above quote from Steiner’s book might as well say Bruce Charlton instead of Heraclitus. It would be just as true.Geraint Aptedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12075642140133860559noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-54072032526400327342015-12-30T18:55:23.179+00:002015-12-30T18:55:23.179+00:00@Wondering - My breakthrough on depression was thi...@Wondering - My breakthrough on depression was this<br /><br />http://hedweb.com/bgcharlton/depression.html<br /><br />It was combining the known information that many people with ebdogenous depression had inflammatory problems, the sickness behaviour insights of Hart being similar to the vital symptoms of depression, and that many true antidepressants (ie effective against endogenous depression) are painkillers. <br /><br />These are my suggestion for treating the various subtypes of moderate depression <br /><br />http://www.hedweb.com/bgcharlton/subtypes-depression.pdf<br /><br />But for severe depression, especially with psychotic features - and where suicide or dehydration/ starvation is a risk - then ECT/ Electroshock is by far the most effective and fastest treatment (although some studies suggest that ketamine may be an alternative for non-psychotic depression, and maybe even faster than ECT)<br /><br /> Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-87692045019493323582015-12-30T18:16:58.626+00:002015-12-30T18:16:58.626+00:00Was your breakthrough on depression that it's ...Was your breakthrough on depression that it's often an inflammatory condition? <br /><br />What would be your main recommendation for treating depression? Wonderingnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-44941083165720378192015-12-30T14:30:26.225+00:002015-12-30T14:30:26.225+00:00@Nicholas - No, diversional breaks do not, did not...@Nicholas - No, diversional breaks do not, did not, work *at all*! After all, what better time of year for such things? <br /><br />Christmas was a delight and full of joys and recreations - but when the malaise is metaphysical, so must be the cure!Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-29560104211417273642015-12-30T14:17:42.354+00:002015-12-30T14:17:42.354+00:00You need a Monty Python break. A Dead Parrot sket...You need a Monty Python break. A Dead Parrot sketch, and an Election Special followed by The Ministry of Silly Walks should help shake up the mindset. Nothing like it. Then sit-down and write the paper while imagining an audience full of Professor Gumby sorts. If that fails then you are in the most dire straights which requires Arthur against the Black Knight, and the Knights of Ni. see - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIV4KLCmJ98 <br /><br />Be aware though that so much silliness in one intense session might result in your rapid abandonment of the bureaucratic rituals of writing for academia once and for all. (It is very difficult to take the stale bureaucratic process seriously when it is exactly the sort of thing the Pythons made so much fun of - repeatedly.)<br /><br />Nicholas Fulfordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15779171820370486921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-161417424927559292015-12-30T12:33:29.808+00:002015-12-30T12:33:29.808+00:00@Thu - It is important to remember - but that may ...@Thu - It is important to remember - but that may be difficult when absorbed in a positivistic system. For most people most of the time, the dominant positivistic/ mechanistic thought-world is the linked-bureaucracy (civil administration/ law/ mainstream religions/ education/ health services/ police/ the military etc).Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-14586859858259351792015-12-30T09:45:11.432+00:002015-12-30T09:45:11.432+00:00The mechanistic aspects of reality do exist, but i...The mechanistic aspects of reality do exist, but it is important to remember that they are subordinate.Thursdayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13002311410445623799noreply@blogger.com