Harris & Dawkins: Pre-talk thoughts
Im currently en-route to Oxford for the first of the Sam Harris events and I’ve stopped off for a break from the M1 and to do some thinking.
I’ve got The Moral Landscape on the iPod and I’m about 2/3rds through it. This will be the second time I’ve listened/read through the book and my thoughts are starting to become clearer.
I think the negative reviews of the book are not entirely unfounded, but at their root lies perhaps a misunderstanding of how Harris is using the term ‘science’.
Whilst Sam does go into detail as to what he means by ‘how science can determine morality’ I also feel that he is not entirely blameless for the confusion. The subtitle of the book implies a very specific utilisation of the scientific discipline. The word ‘science’ conjures quite precise imagery in the collective consciousness of the book buying populace.
I think this is even more of a problem for the philosophers and theologians that have criticised it. It would be interesting to see what a philosopher of the sciences like Daniel Dennett thinks of it. I have no doubt that Dennett would set aside the fact that they are on the same team in order to de with Harris’s claims.
Sam is using the term ‘science’ very broadly, to the effect that we can use objective observation to see how the brain reacts to certain states of ‘well being’ and propositions of moral/ethical actions. He then argues this is the basis for deciding on whether actions are objectively moral or not.
This is another major area for confusion. I don’t think Sam is arguing that there exists objective morality outside of human experience. For example that there is an unseen rulebook somewhere that outlines morality independent of whether humans exist or not. This is essentially the line taken by religious apologists and what they mean by object morality. Harris is almost misusing the term objective, or at very least redefining t somewhat. This is why it felt to me that Harris and Lane Craig were debating at cross purposes last week.
I intend to write an in depth review of The Moral Landscape after the talks this week, and after I have finished reading/listening to it once more. This is obviously not that review, just my ongoing feelings on the subject.
Once you accept Harris’s claim that ‘well being’ is the subconscious or conscious default goal of all sentient creatures, his reasoning and arguments are extremely logical and convincing. This is not to say I’m completely happy with it, or that the first premise of ‘well being’ being the arbiter of what we should want is true. Harris foes however spend a lot of time giving reasons as to why he believes this is the case.
The negative reviews seem to be over looking these massive chunks of the book that address many of the concerns and supposed problems that are levied at it. It leads one to believe that many ‘reviewers’ are not actually reading the book itself :/
Anyway, quick slash and back on the road! Hope the weather is still this nice in Oxford 
dB
Working Out: Ups and downs (Update 2011)
About two years ago I had a major overhaul of my diet, joined the gym and began working out in earnest. Overall it’s gone really well but recently, as in the past 6 months, it’s got a lot harder to make consistent gains.
I started off fluctuating around the 11 stone mark, and in just under 18 months I built enough muscle mass to get me to just under/over 13 stone, at which I’ve kinda stalled at for the last 6 months. Although I am really pleased with this achievement, my goal however was and is to get to 14 stone with a body fat % of 10. I was told this last 14 pounds would be the hardest to gain and I really am struggling to get there.
I suppose I have a lot excuses I could make, “moved house”, “went abroad”, “christmas”, “DIY” etc etc but the truth is just getting fatigued with the working out and frazzled from some very long working hours.
So I’m pretty much at the same place I was in the third photo of this strip :/ which is ok but not Superman shape!
So that’s my next focus, with so much momentum building for the Man of Steel I’m going to be using that for my goal posts. It’s my estimation that at 6′ tall, Henry Cavill (the new guy cast as Kal-El) needs to be at around 15 stone with 8-10% body fat. So for me to pull off a relativistic stature at 5’10″ I still think a little over 14 stone and 10% body fat is just right.
I’m going to go all out for the premiere, and build a replica Man of Steel Superman suit, hopefully with the same accuracy and success as I did with Heath’s Joker. The movie is planned to start shooting end of August so that’s when I plan to hit 14 stone. This then gives me almost 18 months to cut my body fat and start building the suit.
Fun fun fun.
A Week of Sam Harris
I’ve been a big admirer of Sam Harris in recent years. His ideas can at times be controversial to both theist and atheist alike, yet he always remains lucid, calm and a strong advocate of rational thought.
Having watched a lot of debates and talks online over the years I’m finally going to get to hear him speak in person as he’s going to be in the UK promoting his recent book “The Moral Landscape”.
The real exciting thing is that his string of talks coincides with an easy week off work, and so I’m going round the UK to see all but one of them!
Tuesday it’s a double whammy of awesomeness as he discusses with Richard Dawkins on the same stage the topic, “Who say’s science has nothing to do with morality?“, for this one I’m driving down to Oxford alone (get it touch if you fancy meeting up).
Wednesday Sarah and I are driving down to Bristol Festival of Ideas for a stand alone talk by Sam on TML book itself, hopefully staying over to enjoy the town the following day.
Finally, on Saturday with Sarah and her father, it’s over to Cambridge for the WordFest. Here Sam will be in discussion with Ian McEwan, presumably along the same lines as the Dawkins event.
A rather pleasant week of rational thought and ideas, hopefully the weather wont turn too much.
I’ve read “The Moral Landscape” once through fully and am about halfway through my second reading in preparation for the talks. I’m also reading some of the heavy criticism it received as well as positive views of it to try and wrap my head around the issues in greater detail and form
Hopefully I’ll have my laptop with me and blog about it whilst I’m out and about. I know that the Dawkins discussion has definitely sold out but if anyone’s going and wants to meet up before/after for drink and talks get in touch. The other events may still have tickets available, check the links above.
dB
Thoughts on Henry Cavill as Superman
It’s a pretty exciting time to be a Superman fan! After the lukewarm reception of Superman Returns in ’06 I thought it would be quite some time before Kal-El would be back on the big sreen. So I found myself feeling equal parts elation and nervous anticipation when it was announced that Christopher Nolan would be over seeing a Zach Snyder directed reboot. Snyder is visually ambitious, faithful to the source material, but ultimtley very hit and miss! However Christopher Nolan has made two of my favourite films of all time.
Whether this new Superman means rebooting sans origin story or not remains to be seen, however there are some rumours that any origin segment will focus on the missing 12 years between finding the fortress of solitude and emerging as Superman in Metropolis, a la Superman Birthright comic series.
So after a few months of casting wars on the forums, Henry Cavill has been chosen to take over the tights, and what do I think? Well…I’m quietly confident he can do it. He has been a fan favourite on the boards for years and years, and lost out to Brandon Routh for Superman Returns. He has always been closely linked with the role, and now it is officially his, I’m excited (and a little worried) to see what he does with it.
I actually have not seen him in much, so all I’m going on is the general hear-say that he has sufficient acting chops to pull it off. I guess I have plenty of time to dig into his previous work and get a feel for how he acts.
Going on facial features alone he has it nailed. Chiseled handsome face, blue eyes and dark hair (however my only worry is on his hair, it doesn’t sell me 100% and I’m intrigued to see the first promo pics to see how they are gonna manage it), certainly most of the female reaction thus far has been a collective “phwoar”. And that can only mean a good thing in getting the general audience to go see the movie. He definitely has the body frame to play Superman, but he’s not exactly got the size, mass or tone right now. Therefore I’m hoping that he is chained to the gym and kitchen for now until filming begins this summer. We currently have some seriously pumped Marvel heroes being released this year, and Superman really deserves to look like he can whoop all their asses at once, with one hand behind the back, despite how unlikely a silver screen cross-over would be 
Other than Cavill there have been some interesting contenders for role this time, and it’s a tough one because there are so many factors that have to go into casting Superman. Christopher Reeve was pretty much perfect, no forget that not pretty much, he actually was darn perfect. And to the vast majority of people who aren’t hard core geeks he IS Superman. I think it’s a good move that by casting Henry Cavill they are breaking away from that “Reeve-esque” look, whilst still getting someone that looks like comic book Kal-El come to life. I do think Cavill’s facial features scream Superman, definitely not Christopher Reeve, but certainly Superman. I see this as a great mould breaking boon for the character and franchise as a whole.
I would say that Henry Cavill probably is the best compromise of features, physique, height and most importantly acting ability. Sure Manganiello’s physique and height is pure text book, but I don’t think he has the face for it. Matthew Bommer arguably looks even more like Superman in the face than Christopher Reeve did, and yet he doesn’t have the height or the frame for it.
And what about Brandon Routh? Ah yes poor Brandon, I really feel for him. It does seem like he has been shafted hard by Bryan Singers experiment. Warner Brothers don’t want him on the new project presumably because of the connection to the damp squid that was Superman Returns, but I really don’t feel like he was given enough to work with and prove himself with Returns. I do feel like he should be given another shot. However we are where we are, and as I said at the start of the post, I’m cautiously optimistic that Cavill can pull it off.
A Fresh Start
Hi there to all; newcomers as well as people putting up with me changing this once again!
I’ve been messing around with various blogging platforms for as long as I can remember; livejournal, wordpress, blogger, posterous etc. I think I’ve been through them all, however I have never got into a consistent habit of actually writing content. Well I’m determined to change that this year and I’ve had a bit of an on-line service clear out.
I’ve decided to cut down what I’m using and put my content into two camps. Longer, composed posts on specific topics, and what I suppose I’ll call life blogging. WordPress has always been in my opinion the most fully featured and extensive system for the former, and I’ve finally decided that Tumblr works best for the latter.
For some time I was sure that Posterous was the perfect platform, however only supporting tags not categories really prevents it being useful for long posts and organising. Posterous also doesn’t have the same community drive that Tumblr has making it less useful for life blogging. The themes available, whilst becoming more numerous are not as slick as Tumblr either.
I think I got caught up in Posterous because of my slight OCD tendencies to sync and normalise data across different places. Basically the “auto posting everywhere” that Posterous can do made me obsess on maintaining so many different services and accounts, that eventually I’m thinking less about content and more about ironing out the auto posting quirks and errors.
Regarding the auto posting, I’ve realised that people only really care about Facebook and Twitter! So by coupling Tumblr to fb and twitter, all my life and photo blogging bases are covered. WordPress can also be coupled to twitter and fb provides a more structured forum for longer subject composed posts on religion, atheism, scepticism, Arabic etc.
By letting go of my strange psychological need to use and understand every platform out there, I can try getting focussed on writing and posting more interesting stuff. And if I really need/want to, I can manually copy and paste between Tumblr and WordPress for the overlaps.
So, that’s it…I’m going to start making a concerted effort to post at least once a week here, and well I guess whenever the mood strikes for Tumblr.
David
