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offsite link North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

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The Saker
A bird's eye view of the vineyard

offsite link Alternative Copy of thesaker.is site is available Thu May 25, 2023 14:38 | Ice-Saker-V6bKu3nz
Alternative site: https://thesaker.si/saker-a... Site was created using the downloads provided Regards Herb

offsite link The Saker blog is now frozen Tue Feb 28, 2023 23:55 | The Saker
Dear friends As I have previously announced, we are now “freezing” the blog.? We are also making archives of the blog available for free download in various formats (see below).?

offsite link What do you make of the Russia and China Partnership? Tue Feb 28, 2023 16:26 | The Saker
by Mr. Allen for the Saker blog Over the last few years, we hear leaders from both Russia and China pronouncing that they have formed a relationship where there are

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offsite link The stage is set for Hybrid World War III Mon Feb 27, 2023 15:50 | The Saker
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Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link Church of England Tells Clergy to Edit Christmas Carols to ?Avoid Unnecessary Offence? Tue Dec 24, 2024 18:00 | Will Jones
The Church of England has told clergy in Birmingham to watch out for "problematic words" in Christmas carols that imply Jesus is the "true Messiah" or other religions aren't valid. And they wonder why the pews are empty.
The post Church of England Tells Clergy to Edit Christmas Carols to “Avoid Unnecessary Offence” appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Best-Selling Hybrids Face Net Zero Ban From 2030 Tue Dec 24, 2024 15:42 | Will Jones
Some of Britain?s best-selling hybrid cars will be banned from sale after 2030 under a?Net Zero crackdown?proposed by Ministers, including the mild hybrid versions of the Ford Puma, Range Rover Evoque and VW Golf.
The post Best-Selling Hybrids Face Net Zero Ban From 2030 appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Experts Call For Return of Lockdown-Style Social Distancing as Flu Surges, Claiming ?a Fifth of Thos... Tue Dec 24, 2024 13:46 | Will Jones
Experts?have issued an urgent call for lockdown-style social distancing ahead of Christmas Day amid surging flu infections, claiming that a fifth of those infected have no symptoms but can spread it.
The post Experts Call For Return of Lockdown-Style Social Distancing as Flu Surges, Claiming “a Fifth of Those Infected Have No Symptoms But Can Spread It” appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link J.K. Rowling Leads Backlash Against Sturgeon for Claiming There Was No Public Opposition to Gender S... Tue Dec 24, 2024 11:23 | Will Jones
J.K. Rowling has led a feminist backlash against?Nicola Sturgeon?after she was accused of ?rewriting history? over the gender self-ID law controversy by claiming there was no public opposition until "forces muscled in".
The post J.K. Rowling Leads Backlash Against Sturgeon for Claiming There Was No Public Opposition to Gender Self-ID Until “Forces Muscled In” appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Science Shock: CO2 is Good for the Planet, Peer-Reviewed Studies Suggest Tue Dec 24, 2024 09:00 | Chris Morrison
Dramatic evidence has been published in a number of recent science papers that CO2 levels are already?'saturated', meaning little or no further warming is to be expected and rising CO2 levels are all beneficial.
The post Science Shock: CO2 is Good for the Planet, Peer-Reviewed Studies Suggest appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

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Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?113 Fri Dec 20, 2024 10:42 | en

offsite link Pentagon could create a second Kurdish state Fri Dec 20, 2024 10:31 | en

offsite link How Washington and Ankara Changed the Regime in Damascus , by Thierry Meyssan Tue Dec 17, 2024 06:58 | en

offsite link Statement by President Bashar al-Assad on the Circumstances Leading to his Depar... Mon Dec 16, 2024 13:26 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?112 Fri Dec 13, 2024 15:34 | en

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Darwin, Marx and Nietzsche

category international | history and heritage | other press author Tuesday September 07, 2010 17:27author by Paddy Hackett - noneauthor email maxanger at live dot ie Report this post to the editors

In a sense, then, there is a commonality between these three 19th century intellectual figures --Darwin, Marx and Nietzsche.

Humanity is the product of evolution through natural selection.

Our minds, egos, self-esteem, consciousness, belief in an afterlife, conscience, guilt etc are fictions created by our evolutionary development. As Nietzsche argued there is no such thing as mind, consciousness, the self. They are, in a sense, illusions created by evolution to produce what is known as humanity. Humanity minus these fictions would not be human. Humans cannot exist without the existence of these illusions. These fictions are necessary illusions manufactured by men.

The body and brain that we possess today are products of the Stone Age. These bodies and brains have hardly evolved since the Stone Age. Consequently they are, in a sense, unsuitable for modern conditions. This is why human beings can act in such irrational ways and why we have psychopaths and other individuals with serious malfunctioning problems. To simply attribute all human problems to capitalism is trite. Nature will be always inscribed on us. We can never escape the limitations imposed upon us by nature.

Humanity evolved these illusions as devices whereby we are more motivated to improve both ourselves and our surrounding conditions. For instance without a sense of self-esteem we would not feel important. Consequently we would not see any meaning in undertaking many activities. If we had never believed in an afterlife we would not found much meaning to life. Consequently there are many things we would not want to do. This is true of the other fundamental illusions that envelope us. Without them there would have been no incentive for the species that evolved into homo sapiens sapiens to socially develop. Consequently there would never have existed human civilization.
In a sense, then, there is a commonality between these three 19th century intellectual figures --Darwin, Marx and Nietzsche.

Related Link: http://www.paddy-hackett.blogspot.com/
author by ocianainpublication date Fri Jan 28, 2011 16:42author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Actually Darwin and Wallace both arrived at the idea of "natural selection" after reading an economics book by a laissez faire economist named Malthus. The noted Christian apologist Bertrand Russell noted that Natural selection, "...is Victorian economics introduced into the natural world." (paraphrase). In short Darwinism is free market economic theory entered into the biological world. Perhaps one reason Darwinism sounds so right upon first being exposed to it is because, we have been conditioned to embrace free market economics?

author by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite partypublication date Sat Jan 29, 2011 16:11author address author phone Report this post to the editors


They even have term for it, Social Darwinism, and it is recognised as one of the facets of fascistic programs. The modern euphemism is 'meritocracy'.
Basically dog-eat-dog. Hence the self-affirmation of 'Because I'm worth it'. Madison Avenue retain their cutting edge mastery.

Paddy's terminology is very broad and open to myriad interpretations on many of his terms, not least how to define 'human'.

I dont think being bipedal or language-using mammals is sufficient. Nor are we just the product of the Stone Age. We are evolving all the time, it aint a done deal. Nature AND nurture(or culture, in its broadest sense), Paddy.

Human Race is a good term. Some never cross the finishing line, they retain their simian nature, no matter what their opportunities for development, they defining such a concept as dependent on how many bananas(well, ingots) you can accummulate. And it dont finish til the final whistle, as you can slip from being quite human, in the best sense, to the bestiality of of Camp Commandant, as is constantly proven on all sides.

As a result you get such wonders of the world as the European savages who pillaged and murdered their way west before turning back east for the present festival of carnage(look up the derivation of carnival)designating the great civilisations they torched as being the savages.

And we can escape some of the limitations nature imposes. We can transcend them, as the likes of Christy Brown prove regularly.

author by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite partypublication date Sat Jan 29, 2011 16:43author address author phone Report this post to the editors

For us joe soaps.

But not to any respectable astro-physicist. At least try to do what you claim on your shingle, or adopt no pretentious titles for the sake of impression.

author by Scientist.publication date Mon Jan 31, 2011 19:11author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Science is Science Opus.
Nothing to do with political claptrap of any sort.

An apple falls on your head whether you are Fianna Fail of Fine Gael.

Am I realy writing this in 21st Century Ireland ??

author by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite partypublication date Tue Feb 01, 2011 10:34author address author phone Report this post to the editors

..and is a method of examining physical phenomena, a branch of knowledge(Scio, Latin, 'to know').

It is practised by humans, people, or as the Greeks had it, the 'polis'(no not the Glaswegian with the blue light flashing).
People are political, science exists in a political world. Science becomes politicised. Look no further than the discrepancy between prioritising scientific research budgets to suit corporate rather than social and democratically decided ends, often resulting in mega-billions going to arms programs where a fraction of the same investment could provide clean water and adequate nutrition and education to the billion neglected and needing them.

Thats science driven by political(imperial/corporate/profit ) rather than objective/democratic ends. At its extreme it produces its Mengeles;but usually just the average apolitical, apathetic, indifference to outside considerations,which can lead to the usual obedient service to whatever regime pays the food and rent bills. Not unlike the pigeon pecking the food release button, because thats how its been conditioned.

Any practising scientist knows his world is hemmed in by political forces, from the local politics of the lab, back through the jockeying for recognition and publication to secure funding.

Being able to spell the word and wave it around does not make you a practitioner.

author by Biologist.publication date Tue Feb 01, 2011 18:56author address author phone Report this post to the editors

As the writer (and also scientist ) C.P.Snow correctly pointed out in 1959:
"Writers and artist operate on an altogether inferior intellectual plane to scientists.".

author by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite partypublication date Wed Feb 02, 2011 12:41author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Thats a 'scientific' observation, no doubt.

Its definitive subjectivity indicates otherwise.

Shame about your hypothesis.

author by Sceptic . - None Whatsoeverpublication date Wed Feb 02, 2011 12:53author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Writers operate on what they have experienced , not what they have imagined !

The Latter is for the ' arty farty ' .

author by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite partypublication date Wed Feb 02, 2011 13:03author address author phone Report this post to the editors

There are writers and writers.Just as there are scientists and scientists. The good practitioners practise both, and recognise that science requires imagination(Einstein claimed it, imagination, to be '.. MORE important than knowledge'). The faculties are not discrete, but interact and compliment each other in a balance.

author by Sceptic - None Whatsoeverpublication date Wed Feb 02, 2011 13:44author address author phone Report this post to the editors

i dont know what Einstein was smokin' opus ,when he rote what he rit , but as you are an
ardent fan of oul al you must know of course that the aforementioned oul al is' hovis' , as in
brown bread . dont forget to put an x for herr kenny while your at it :-)

author by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite partypublication date Wed Feb 02, 2011 14:13author address author phone Report this post to the editors

So I'll pass it by. Did you grow it yourself ?

My point was about false dichotomies. If you missed it look closer. Al is incidental, its about the actuality of scientific progress which requires more than a monocular reductionist squint.

Herr Kenny??
Is that herr Pat or her Edna?

author by Sceptic . - None Whatsoeverpublication date Wed Feb 02, 2011 14:40author address author phone Report this post to the editors

There you go opus , blindin a Dublin 4'r with science, yet again .
how i , a mere product of Jameson 12 , am supposed to keep abrest of your good self
i will never know , on a' bud lighter ' note i pray you will vote for Herr Endaderoad Kenny as
he is going mad to ' get us all back to work ' , i hate those 4 letter words dont you ?
but at least he tries to move forward in an attempt to bankrupt the third world country , with an
o included , to which meehall martin will rue the bloody day he ever introduced the no smokin
ban which has left the boozers with no craic whatsover . am off out now to drink and be merry
and smoke my brains out , whats left of them , keep well .

author by Physicist.publication date Wed Feb 02, 2011 15:08author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Try coming up with a better description of gravity than Einstein's General Theory of Relativity

Hitler was so insensed that a Jew should come up with such brilliance that he instructed 100 of the best Aryan writers to write the book:
"100 Authers against Einstein".

Read all about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_Authors_Against_Einste...stein

The Jew Einstein replied:
"If I were wrong then only one author would have been enough".

author by Darwinist.publication date Wed Feb 02, 2011 15:33author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Seeing as Darwin is the first name in the title of the thread title it is instructive to read what Darwin said about British Universities:

"You can get a first class honours degree in arts in a British university without ever having heard that the earth orbits the sun."

author by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite partypublication date Thu Feb 03, 2011 14:06author address author phone Report this post to the editors


You can get a PhD in physics without knowing how Dante relates to Joyce. Horses and courses. Different fields of human knowledge. If we return to the original idea of university, the name implies a universal foundation in human knowledge, so ideally an overview of all fields, before specialisation.

author by Scientist.publication date Thu Feb 03, 2011 14:10author address author phone Report this post to the editors

We living people do not need dead men to think for us.
.

author by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite partypublication date Thu Feb 03, 2011 14:47author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Any scientist knows science is a collaborative project, punctuated by individual solitary(relative)inputs.

The thoughts, discoveries, and inventions of the dead are the foundation we think as we do as a result of. Right back to the first taming of fire.
It is the dead created the language and mathemathics science builds with, through and upon.

Such arrogance is a recipe for bad science, which also exists. It is, after all, a human practise.

author by Scientist.publication date Fri Feb 04, 2011 13:25author address author phone Report this post to the editors

I was refering to " new ideas" Opus.
Science, Technologyand Mathematics do not "Read the Words of a Prophet." from "Fado-Fado".
The very opposite is true.

author by Physicist.publication date Fri Feb 04, 2011 13:44author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Agree with that.
The "prophets " Karl Marx and Nietsche were two jesters, in scientific terms.
History will not remember them kindly.
(The creater of anarchism, Bakunin, included as well.)

Science does not bother to remember any of them at all.

author by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite partypublication date Fri Feb 04, 2011 13:49author address author phone Report this post to the editors

..is an abstraction. to refer to it as 'dead' seems more akin to poetic than scientific speculation.

Science, technology and mathematics do not 'read'. Your anthropomorphism is getting the better of your 'scientific' judgement.

author by Scientist.publication date Fri Feb 04, 2011 14:01author address author phone Report this post to the editors

"Dead seems more akin to poetic than scientific speculation."

I ran over a hedgehog yesterday Opus.
It looked dead to me.
Poet that I am.

author by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite partypublication date Fri Feb 04, 2011 14:14author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Indicates the degree of your scientific dependability. Stick to the poesy. I'll warn Heaney.Ciao.

author by Scientist.publication date Fri Feb 04, 2011 14:36author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Nobody reads Heaney.
(Except Desmond Fennell who regards Heaney as a not -poet.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmond_Fennell_%28Irish_w...er%29

"Whatever You Say, Say Nothing: Why Seamus Heaney Is No.1 (1991)".

I couldn't care less about either of them.
They are from the Arts world therefore boring.

author by GuffManpublication date Sun Feb 06, 2011 16:01author address author phone Report this post to the editors

the only thing scientific about scientist/pete/physicist/astronomer is his methodical approach to the destruction and derailing of every thread on this site that he posts on with pointless navel gazing guff. Ignore him opus

author by Engineering Nornality.publication date Sun Feb 06, 2011 17:01author address author phone Report this post to the editors

"His methodical approach to the destruction and derailing of every thread."

All machines are tested to destruction.

That is how you find out which space shuttle will lift off the ground.
Doesn't always work.

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