Monthly Archives: February 2012
wonders and explanations
Two appealingly contradictory/complementary quotes collided on my desk this week: this from Peter Forbes reviewing a book on beauty and science: ‘There is a deep strand of thought that claims that science destroys beauty by analysing – it atomises, dissects, … Continue reading
an optimist of the will
An elegant clarification of political optimism from cultural theorist Stuart Hall, interviewed in the Guardian by Zoe Williams. For many years I have kept in mind his idea of optimism being located in continuing dialogue, and in what he has … Continue reading
introversion at work
It’s been good to see a number of writers recently exploring introversion in the workplace, led by Susan Cain in the New York Times. From a constructivist perspective we might see the construct of ‘introversion-extraversion’ not as fixing us at … Continue reading
being astonished
‘Loosened construction provides us with a kind of resilience in the face of harsh reality… loosening releases facts, long taken as self-evident, from their conceptual moorings…once so freed, they may be seen in new aspects hitherto unsuspected, and the creative … Continue reading