English for trippers: Humility is civility

There is utility in both! But a civil society needs both! 

Don't confuse humility with humiliation!

Thirty previously unpublished verses by Empedocles discovered on a papyrus from Cairo

Good news!

"A 2,000-year-old papyrus fragment, discovered in the archives of the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology in Cairo, reveals 30 previously unpublished verses by Empedocles, a pre-Socratic philosopher of the fifth century BCE. This discovery offers researchers direct access to a body of thought previously known only through quotations from later authors. The very first edition, translation, and commentary on these verses are published in the book "L'Empédocle du Caire," ... 

a papyrologist ... identified papyrus P. Fouad inv. 218 as an unknown fragment of the "Physica," the poem by the philosopher Empedocles of Agrigentum. ...

The text that has come to light deals with the theory of particle effluvia and sensory perceptions, particularly vision. Analysis of the text has revealed unexpected connections, including the probable direct source of a passage by Plutarch (2nd century), as well as a dialogue by Plato and a text by Theophrastus, a disciple of Aristotle, both from the 4th century BCE. Unnoticed echoes of Empedocles have also been detected in the comic poet Aristophanes and in the Latin philosopher Lucretius. The study further suggests that Empedocles could be regarded as a precursor of the atomist philosophers, foremost among whom is Democritus of Abdera. ..."

Thirty previously unpublished verses by Empedocles discovered on a papyrus from Cairo

Thirty previously unpublished verses by Empedocles discovered on a papyrus from Cairo (original news release) "A two-thousand-year-old papyrus fragment, discovered in the archives of the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology in Cairo, reveals thirty previously unpublished verses by Empedocles, a pre-Socratic philosopher of the 5th century BCE. This discovery offers researchers direct access to a body of thought previously known only through quotations from later authors. The very first edition, translation and commentary on these verses are published in the book L'Empédocle du Caire ..."

The Myth of Virtuous Democracy

Recommendable!

God, forgive them for they know not what they do

The famous last words of Jesus on the cross (except the Bible reads Father instead of God)!

These wise words have ever impressed me since my childhood!

My late parents also used to quote these wise words occasionally when a situation arose.

I am not an expert in world religions, but I (mistakenly?) believe these words also distinguish Christianity from some other religions.

Examining why some species developed consciousness while others remained non-conscious

Amazing stuff! Was prior research too much focused too much on analyzing specific brain regions (like missing the forest for the trees)?

"What is the evolutionary advantage of our consciousness? And what can we learn about this from observing birds? ...

Although scientific research about consciousness has enjoyed a boom in the past two decades, one central question remains unanswered: What is the function of consciousness? Why did it evolve at all? ...

Furthermore, observing the brains of birds shows that evolution can achieve similar functional solutions to realize consciousness despite different structures. ...

Humans and some animals then develop a reflexive (self-)consciousness. In its complex form, it means that we are able to reflect on ourselves as well as our past and future. We can form an image of ourselves and incorporate it into our actions and plans. “Reflexive consciousness, in its simple forms, developed parallel to the two basic forms of consciousness,” explains Newen. “IN such cases conscious experience focuses not on perceiving the environment, but rather on the conscious registration of aspects of oneself.” This includes the state of one’s own body, as well as one’s perception, sensations, thoughts, and actions. To use one simple example, recognizing oneself in the mirror is a form of reflexive consciousness. Children develop this skill at 18 months, and some animals have been shown to do this as well, such as chimpanzees, dolphins, and magpies. Reflexive conscious experiences – as its core function –  makes it possible for us to better integrate into society and coordinate with others. ...

The researchers highlight three central areas in which birds show remarkable parallels to conscious experience in mammals: sensory consciousness, neurobiological foundations, and accounts of self-consciousness. ...

Firstly, studies of sensory consciousness indicate that birds not only automatically process stimuli, but subjectively experience them. When pigeons are presented with ambiguous visual stimuli, they shift between various interpretations, similar to humans. Crows have also been shown to possess nerve signals that do not reflect the physical presence of a stimulus, but rather the animal’s subjective perception. ...

Secondly, birds’ brains contain functional structures that meet the theoretical requirements of conscious processing, despite their different brain structure. “The avian equivalent to the prefrontal cortex, the NCL, is immensely connected and allows the brain to integrate and flexibly process information,” says Güntürkün. “The connectome of the avian forebrain, which presents the entirety of the flows of information between the regions of the brain, shares many similarities with mammals. Birds thus meet many criteria of established theories of consciousness, such as the Global Neuronal Workspace theory.”

Thirdly, more recent experiments show that birds may have different types of self-perception. Even though some species of corvids pass the traditional mirror test, other ecologically significant versions of the tests have shown further types of self-consciousness in other bird species. “Experiments indicate that pigeons and chickens differentiate between their reflection in a mirror and a real fellow member of their species, and react to these according to context. This is a sign of situational, basic self-consciousness,” ...

The findings suggest that consciousness is an older and more widespread evolutionary phenomenon than had previously been assumed. Birds demonstrate that conscious processing is also possible without a cerebral cortex and that different brain structures can achieve similar functional solutions. ..."

From the abstract (1):

"The evolution of consciousness is a neglected topic that plays a surprisingly insignificant role in all major theories of consciousness. Furthermore, substantial disagreements can be observed in the dominant views on the neural correlates of consciousness (NCCs), which focus too much on cortical brain regions.

In order to dissolve some of the contradictions among these views and to constrain the rival theories, we propose to distinguish three core phenomena of phenomenal consciousness: basic arousal, general alertness and reflexive (self-)consciousness.

The central aim is to show that we can fruitfully distinguish specific functions for each of the three phenomena.

Basic arousal has the function to alarm the body and secure survival by intervening in the slow updating of homeostatic processes.

General alertness fosters advanced learning and decision-making processes, enabling various new behavioural strategies to deal with challenges, and

reflexive (self-)consciousness enables future-directed long-term planning, accounting for the mindset of oneself and other agents.

Constraining our contemporary theories of consciousness with this evolutionary and functional approach will enable the science of consciousness to make progress by accounting for three specific functions of consciousness, thereby informing the search for distinct an NCC."

From the abstract (2):

"In this article, we start from the assumption that consciousness is not the ultimate triumph of human evolution but rather represents a more basic cognitive process, possibly shared with other animal phyla. 

In this article, we show that there is growing evidence that

(i) birds have sensory and self-awareness, and

(ii) they also have the neural architecture that may be necessary for this.

We present behavioural studies and recent neurobiological data and discuss them in relation to three major theories of consciousness: the Global Neural Workspace Theory (GNWT), the Recurrent Processing Theory (RPT) and the Integrated Information Theory.

Although the findings so far do not allow for a strong conclusion, the neurophysiological and anatomical features of the avian brain seem to align with the prerequisites of the GNWT and RPT to host consciousness."

Examining why some species developed consciousness while others remained non-conscious

We Have a Consciousness? (original news release)

Three types of phenomenal consciousness and their functional roles: unfolding the ALARM theory of consciousness (open access, 1)

Conscious birds (open access, 2)

Fig. 1 Global Neuronal Workspace Theory (GNWT) and the avian connectome.

(A) The GNWT requires local and specialized neuronal modules (small circles grouped by function in the external networks) linked to a central, highly interconnected global workspace. ...

(B) The telencephalic connectome of the pigeon forebrain as analysed with graph theoretical approaches, showing exclusively the connections to and from the hub nodes. ... are densely interconnected to each other as well as to the localized modules (small circles). This represents a potential substrate for a global workspace ... 

Consciousness as the foundation: New theory addresses nature of reality

Amazing stuff!

According to Google Scholar Maria Stromme has a total lifetime citation count of 30595 as of 12/1/2025. That is not bad!

"... Stromme, who normally conducts research in nanotechnology, here takes a major leap from the smallest scales to the very largest – and proposes an entirely new theory of the origin of the universe. The article presents a framework in which consciousness is not viewed as a byproduct of brain activity, but as a fundamental field underlying everything we experience – matter, space, time, and life itself. ..."

From the abstract:

"The nature of consciousness and its relationship to physical reality remain among the most profound scientific and philosophical challenges. This paper presents a novel framework that integrates consciousness with fundamental physics, proposing that consciousness is not an emergent property of neural processes but a foundational aspect of reality.

Building upon insights from quantum field theory and non-dual philosophy, a model based on the three principles of universal mind, universal consciousness, and universal thought is introduced.

These principles describe an underlying, formless intelligence (mind), the capacity for awareness (consciousness), and the dynamic mechanism through which experience and differentiation arise (thought).

Within this framework, the emergence of space–time and individual awareness is modeled mathematically by treating universal consciousness as a fundamental field.

Differentiation into individual experience occurs via mechanisms such as symmetry breaking, quantum fluctuations, and discrete state selection—paralleling established concepts in physics, including Bohm’s implicate order, Heisenberg’s potentia, and Wheeler’s participatory universe.

This model suggests that the apparent separateness of individual consciousness is an illusion, with all experience ultimately arising from a unified, formless substrate.

The framework aligns with emerging theories in quantum gravity, information theory, and cosmology that posit classical space–time as emergent from a deeper pre-spatiotemporal order.

It offers a non-reductionist alternative in neuroscience, suggesting that consciousness interacts with physical processes as a fundamental field. By drawing from insights from physics, metaphysics, and philosophy, this conceptual framework proposes new directions for interdisciplinary inquiry into the nature of consciousness and the origins of structure and experience."

Consciousness as the foundation: New theory addresses nature of reality (An interview with the researcher Maria Stromme)

Consciousness as the foundation – new theory of the nature of reality (original news release) "Consciousness is fundamental; only thereafter do time, space and matter arise. This is the starting point for a new theoretical model of the nature of reality, presented by Maria Stromme, Professor of Materials Science at Uppsala University, in the scientific journal AIP Advances. The article has been selected as the best paper of the issue and featured on the cover."

Universal consciousness as foundational field: A theoretical bridge between quantum physics and non-dual philosophy featured (open access)

Maria Stromme (the foundational beauty of consciousness?)

FIG. 2. Illustration of the proposed framework and its implications for sentient beings. The universal consciousness field (Φ) exists beyond space–time in an undifferentiated state. Through differentiation, it gives rise to localized excitations ⁠, which manifest as physical structures or individual consciousness. Following the Big Bang, Φ evolves, generating complex systems capable of awareness—sentient beings with individual consciousness localized in space–time. Once differentiated, personal thought shapes individual awareness and perception, producing evolving subjective interpretations of reality over time. This process creates the illusion of separateness, even though all individual consciousness remains intrinsically connected within the universal consciousness field.

When a man stops believing in God, he doesn't believe in nothing—he believes in anything

Food for thought! A famous observation by Gilbert Keith Chesterton.

When pseudo religions like environmentalism, climate change, LGBTQ, AI and so forth gain support.

"G.K. Chesterton famously observed that when people no longer have faith in God they don’t believe in nothing, they are open to believing anything. And as Christianity has ebbed recently, so the tide of mysticism, the occult and magical thinking has grown. It is precisely amid some of those who proclaim their belief in Reason most loudly that curious belief systems are taking hold.

Big Tech is under the spell of the occult, warns Damian Thompson in this week’s cover piece. Half a century ago, Arthur C. Clarke observed that ‘any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’. Today, artificial intelligence has advanced so far that even its creators are flirting with mystical mythologies and supernatural fantasies. 

Peter Thiel’s lectures on ‘the Antichrist’ attract many, while the number of self-identifying witches in America has overtaken Presbyterians. And these modern day magi are thoroughly at home in the tech-enabled world, with witches now using ChatGPT to generate spells. AI can craft an incantation in the style of a Yoruba magician or conjure a Wiccan goddess.

In Silicon Valley, the corner of the US where Christianity is weakest, cults have thrived since the 1960s. In the vacuum left by faith, tech firms have fed employees eastern mysticism to cultivate ‘mindfulness’ among the workforce. What remains is an endless Halloween of woke spirituality, demonstrating that any sufficiently advanced cultic fad is indistinguishable from hell. ..."

The Spectator Weekly Highlights

Carlo Rovelli: 'Time Is an Illusion'

Recommendable! The arrow of time is not an illusion!

Misstrauen gegenüber dem Menschen: Thomas Hobbes und Sigmund Freud

Empfehlenswert!

"Autoritäre Weltanschauungen gehen meist von einem negativen Menschenbild aus. Thomas Hobbes‘ [Leviathan] absolutistische Staatsidee gründete in einem argen Misstrauen gegenüber dem Menschen in Freiheit. Laut Hobbes seien Menschen im anarchistischen „Naturzustand“ allesamt egoistisch und gewalttätig, sie „scheuen keine Gewalt, sich Frau, Kind und Vieh eines anderen zu unterwerfen […] das Geraubte zu verteidigen […] sich zu rächen für Belanglosigkeiten wie ein Wort, ein Lächeln, einen Widerspruch oder irgendein anderes Zeichen der Geringschätzung“.  Darum müsse man sie durch einen starken Staat reglementieren, Vergehen streng bestrafen, und ihnen allgemein wenig Freiheit lassen. ...

Sigmund Freud stand in dieser Vertrauensfrage eindeutig auf Hobbes‘ Seite. War doch laut Freud der Mensch zu sehr Spielball unbewusster Triebe, die von unserem schwachen, rationalen Bewusstsein zu selten kontrolliert werden könnten. Dennoch entwickelte Freud in Die Zukunft einer Illusion (1927) eine hoffnungsvolle Utopie. Wenn die Menschen nur genügend (richtige) Bildung erfahren würden, könnten sie mit der Zeit die Kontrollkräfte ihres Bewusstseins stärken und so die eigenen Triebe bezwingen. Auf diesem Weg schien ihm eine zukünftige, freie Gesellschaft möglich, in der sich alle Menschen von sich aus entscheiden, wertvolle Mitglieder der Gesellschaft zu sein. 

Denjenigen, die wie ich geneigt sind, dieser Utopie Glauben zu schenken, möchte ich ausdrücklich nicht Freuds darauffolgendes Werk Das Unbehagen in der Kultur (1929), empfehlen. Denn nur zwei Jahre nach der Zukunft einer Illusion lässt Freud hier all seine utopischen Hoffnungen fahren. Im Unbehagen revidiert er seine Anthropologie gründlich in Richtung Hobbes: Menschen seien kaum zu Rationalität und Gemeinschaftssinn fähig, insgeheim wollten sie nicht einmal Freiheit für sich selbst, sondern würden sich lieber einer „Vaterfigur“, einem starken Mann unterwerfen. ..."

Misstrauen gegenüber dem Menschen - Sigmund Freud - Margaret Douglass - Taverne im neuen Gewand

Misunderstood Malthus: The English thinker whose name is synonymous with doom and gloom has lessons for today

Food for thought! However, this essay is quite disappointing! We learn that Malthus was actually a progressive reformer, who warned of overpopulation, but without much detail provided!

"No one uses “Malthusian” as a compliment. Since 1798, when the economist and cleric Thomas Malthus first published “An Essay on the Principles of Population,” the “Malthusian” position – the idea that humans are subject to natural limits – has been vilified and scorned. Today, the term is lobbed at anyone who dares question the optimism of infinite progress.

Unfortunately, almost everything most people think they know about Malthus is wrong. ...

As a writer and active member of the Whig Party, Malthus was a reformer who advocated free national education, the extension of suffrage, the abolition of slavery and free medical care for the poor, among other programs. ..."

Misunderstood Malthus: The English thinker whose name is synonymous with doom and gloom has lessons for today

Thomas Malthus

Tracing the Sexual Revolutions: How the Assault on Marriage Is Destroying Democracy. Really!

Sometimes it is quite amusing when conservatives muse about sex!

When biblical connotations are abused!

The invention of the oral contraceptive pill in 1960 must pure horror to this man! 

"In October 2022, a New York City judge decided that polyamorous relationships — that is, sexual-romantic relationships involving more than two persons — were entitled to the same legal protections as relationships of two persons. ...

How did we get here? After all, wasn’t it just a decade ago that same-sex marriage proponents — my friend Jonathan Rauch for example — were dismissing conservative arguments that expanding marriage’s definition would eliminate any possible principled ground for declining to extend the same rights and recognition to polyamorous and polygamous relationships?

In his powerful and timely book Sex and the Citizen: How the Assault on Marriage Is Destroying Democracy, Conn Carroll makes a compelling case that our contemporary cultural woes in the realm of marriage, gender, and sexuality are ultimately the fruit of the same poisonous tree [???]: the sexual revolution of the mid-to-late 20th century. ..."

Tracing the Sexual Revolutions | American Enterprise Institute - AEI

Robert P. George

The Ancient Roots of Western Self-Criticism

Recommendable! 

It is very curious why this article omitted to mention Socrates (470 – 399 BC). It was he who stated “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” Such humbleness and humility. It was him who refused the opportunity to escape from his death sentence by drinking the poison. He obeyed the law although he knew it was flawed!

The Ancient Roots of Western Self-Criticism "The West’s enduring success is rooted in its awareness of its own faults and constant striving to be better."

Socrates

A Warning from the Ruins of Golden Ages past

Recommendable as far as the brief overview of history is concerned, but quite wrong as to the application to current affairs.

"... There was a time, not so long ago in historical terms, when Baghdad and Cordoba were [...] intellectual centers of the world. Arab and Muslim scholars pioneered medicine, mathematics, astronomy, and philosophy. These were not just randomized bursts of brilliance; they formed the engine of human progress for centuries.

Then came the counterrevolution. In the 11th century, the theologian Abu Hamid al-Ghazali published The Incoherence of the Philosophers, a sweeping attack on rationalist inquiry. With that single work, he helped turn the tide against thinkers like Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and Al-Farabi—giants of logic, science, and metaphysics. The rationalist school was branded heretical. Revelation trumped reason. And so began the implosion of once great civilizations.

The Andalusian polymath Ibn Rushd (Averroes) tried to fight back, famously defending reason in The Incoherence of the Incoherence. But he lost. And with him, the Islamic world lost its intellectual edge. It passed the torch to Europe—and never took it back.

Europe, too, once went dark. After Rome fell, the continent descended into centuries of intellectual stifling. The Church persecuted heretics, criminalized curiosity, and policed thought with the threats of pyres and gallows. Bruno was burned at the stake. Galileo silenced. And the pursuit of truth was reframed as a threat to moral order.

Ironically, it was through translations of the very Muslim philosophers condemned by the Islamic world that Europe began to reawaken. The Renaissance was not a divine miracle. It was the rediscovery of the idea that reason, not doctrine, drives human flourishing.

Civilizations across time have repeated this fatal mistake. Under the Qing dynasty, China’s imperial court executed scholars for misinterpreting Confucian texts. Innovation became dangerous; conformity, sacred. The result? China missed the Industrial Revolution and became a subject of Western colonization.

In the Soviet Union, Stalin decimated scientific disciplines he deemed ideologically impure. Geneticists were imprisoned, physicists vanished into thin air, and entire fields were replaced by pseudoscientific dogma. The cost was measured in lives lost, knowledge buried, and a superpower that ultimately collapsed under the weight of its own ignorance. ..."

A Warning from the Ruins of a Golden Age "History shows that every society that silences its thinkers signs its own death warrant"

The Root of Totalitarianism is Social Engineering

This is certainly one root! Or call it socialist/big government central planning, which also occurs to often in Western democracies.

How some ruling elite wants to impose their vision on the rest of us in Western democracies!

When government paternalism becomes overbearing as it often does in Western democracies!

Western democracies too often have a tendency to veer off to some soft totalitarianism/despotism (e.g. global warming/climate change).

Caveat: I did not read the entire article.

"Isaiah Berlin and Friedrich Hayek were both knights of classical liberalism in the twentieth century — an age dominated by statism. Scholarly work has often focused on the differences in their views on liberty. Their contrasting definitions of liberty are significant for anyone interested in liberal theory. In a famous 1958 lecture, Berlin distinguished between positive and negative liberty. Negative liberty, in his view, is the absence of obstacles to human action, whereas positive liberty is the freedom to act on one’s will and pursue one’s goals. Hayek, on the other hand, defined liberty as the absence of arbitrary coercion and “independence of the arbitrary will of another.” They also differed in their views on the importance of economic freedom. For example, Berlin, in his letters, criticized Hayek for placing too much emphasis on economic freedom. 

Despite these differences, however, they shared a common definition of what constitutes totalitarianism. ..."

The Root of Totalitarianism is Social Engineering | The Daily Economy "Planners who want to ‘perfect’ society often resort to coercion to impose their preferred outcomes. The result has been unthinkable government violence and cruelty."

What causes severe corrosive effects in Western democracies and societies?

The misguided, obsessive pursuit of phony ideologies, pseudo religions, and wrong priorities in conflict to the aspirations of the majority of citizens.

When does it get really dangerous? When the eventual, ultimate corrective forces of democracy (the pendulum of democracy) are undermined or prevented.

Who is behind many of these efforts? The enemies of open societies, domestic and foreign!

Karl Popper published his book in 1945. It is still relevant at the end of the first quarter of the 21st century!

David Hume’s Stark Warning: Reason Serves Passion

Food for thought! In the 21st century this is still very true, unfortunately!

This is also called hindsight rationalizing of decisions!

Caveat: I did not read the entire article.

"David Hume’s A Treatise of Human Nature has been called “one of the keystone books of western philosophy,” “the founding document of cognitive science,” and perhaps the “most important philosophical work” in the English language. ...

For those who believe reason governs them, further consideration of Hume’s philosophy exposes their arrogance.

“Nothing is more usual in philosophy, and even in common life,” Hume wrote in his Treatise, than to claim the “pre-eminence of reason above passion.”  

By passions, Hume means our predispositions, charged thinking, and emotions generated by beliefs of which we are often unaware. Hume argues, “reason alone can never produce any action, or give rise to volition.” He adds, “I infer, that the same faculty [reason] is as incapable of preventing volition, or of disputing the preference with any passion or emotion.”

Hume argues our “passions” come first, and then we use “reason” to justify what our emotions have decided. We think reason drives our decision-making bus, but reason is often only a passenger. ..."

David Hume’s Stark Warning: Reason Serves Passion | The Daily Economy "Hume argues our passions make decisions first, and then we use reason to justify what our emotions have decided."

Vor 100 Jahren starb Rudolf Steiner: Genie der Anthroposophie oder begnadeter Scharlatan?

Manches mag ja brauchbar sein. Aber der Kult um Steiner und Anthroposophie ist wie eine Religion geworden, oder Opium für Viele.

Ich mag mich irren, aber die Faszination mit Steiner hat wohl schon seit etwa 2-3 Jahrzehnten nachgelassen jedenfalls was meine und nachfolgende Generationen angeht. 

Rudolf Steiner: Genie der Anthroposophie oder begnadeter Scharlatan? "Demeter-Gemüse, Waldorfpädagogik, Weleda-Crème. Vieles von dem, was auf seine Lehren zurückgeht, ist heute massentauglich. Rudolf Steiner ist ein Prophet der Selbstoptimierung – und populärer denn je."

Gender identity fluidity

Today, I am a man. Tomorrow, I am a woman. The following day, who knows, who cares! 😊

From bisexual and anything in between or even beyond!

Gender identity is whimsy, if not flimsy!

What is the relationship between fluidity and flirtation? Do I flirt better as a man or a woman? 😊

Double mastectomy, castration, penile or breast reconstruction? Why bother!

Nature versus (gender affirming) nurture!

Sages for the ages

Would we all not be much better off learning more about the wisdom of the great, ancient  sages of the East and West (Socrates, Confucius and many more)? 

Regrettably, I am not very familiar with the sages of the Middle East.

What about sages of the southern hemisphere? Was their wisdom perhaps not as well preserved? Did we overlook it?

Learning more about the ancient sages would prevent so many ideologues and demagogues of our time to fail so miserably! Many more of them would easily be identified as quacks and be ridiculed!

Unfortunately, the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment did not kill superstition, quackery, extreme demagoguery and absurdities in our time (e.g. global warming/climate change)! Instead, without deeper knowledge of the sages we are condemned to repeat the mistakes of the past.

Aristotle: Creating Foundations of philosophy

Very recommendable!