Category Archives: intellectuals

80. The Agnostic’s Survival Manual

Posted on January 2, 2015 by thormay

The Agnostic’s Sur­vival Man­ual Thor May thormay@yahoo.com Bris­bane, Aus­tralia April 2013    Pref­ace Dear reader, are you really hop­ing for a book of ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’? Do you want gen­tle ideas and a com­fort­able cor­ner in which to rest your … Con­tinue read­ing →

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76. Multicultures – communities of familiar strangers

Posted on September 7, 2014 by thormay

Thor May Bris­bane, 2014   Pref­ace: This is a dis­cus­sion paper, not a researched aca­d­e­mic doc­u­ment. In par­tic­u­lar, it includes a fair amount of per­sonal com­ment. Where a topic is of broad gen­eral inter­est comes up with friends, I have adopted … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in China, culture, economics, ethics, evidence, ideology, individualism, intellectuals, Language learning, law, lifestyle, merit, politics, reciprocation, refugees, regulations, religion, rules, value, war, wealth | Leave a comment

74. The Purpose of Education – a hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy?

Posted on August 10, 2014 by thormay

Is edu­ca­tion most com­monly treated purely as an instru­men­tal tool (e.g. to get a job), or as a path to self-devel­op­ment, or both? How can a bal­ance between objec­tives be achieved in pub­lic edu­ca­tion?  Thor May Bris­bane, 2014   Pref­ace: This … Con­tinue read­ing →

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73. Some Uses and Misuses of Reason

Posted on May 20, 2014 by thormay

When can the use of rea­son lead to bet­ter lives and soci­eties, and when can it under­mine them? Thor May Bris­bane, 2014 Think­ing point: The Aus­tralian Attor­ney Gen­eral, George Bran­dis has just declared that argu­ments for cli­mate change are irra­tional and that … Con­tinue read­ing →

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68. Are We Too Wealthy?

Posted on February 27, 2014 by thormay

Do we demand an unsus­tain­able and unre­al­is­tic qual­ity of life? Does our desire to be wealthy place too much pres­sure on the econ­omy and on the envi­ron­ment? Is it pos­si­ble that we may have to think about accept­ing less?  Thor … Con­tinue read­ing →

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59. Super-Culture And The Ghost In The Machine

Posted on June 5, 2013 by thormay

Pref­ace: This lit­tle essay is a bit mis­chie­vous, and appar­ently polit­i­cally incor­rect enough to have sparked out­rage in the minds of some sen­si­tive souls from the polite din­ner party set. Although it has no claims to aca­d­e­mic decency, I have … Con­tinue read­ing →

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The paradox of scholarship: pissing on every lamp post

Posted on July 2, 2002 by thormay

If I have been able to see fur­ther, it was only because I stood on the shoul­ders of giants [Isaac New­ton, 1642 – 1727] Newton’s com­ment encap­su­lates the ideal of schol­ar­ship, though not its con­stant out­come. Schol­ar­ship is often con­fused with … Con­tinue read­ing →

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