Reading, Listening, Watching

[purplecat]

Reading: Philosophy and the Physicists - an exile from my father's bookshelves. It is by L Susan Stebbing who was the first woman to hold a chair in Philosophy in the UK. I had not heard of her before but looked her up when I noticed the book was first published in 1937 (when my father was 7 years old, however the volume I have seems to be a reprinting from 1958). Sadly the book itself is a bit disappointing. Its primary purpose appears to be to critique works by Arthur Eddington of whom I had also not heard, though I probably should have since David Tennant has played him and who, I learn, originated the phrase that has morphed into the idea of infinite monkeys producing the works of Shakespeare. At any rate it seems to assume familiarity with Eddington's writing, and involves a lot of quoting passages from Eddington, analysing them and then declaring them incoherent or possibly merely declaring that Eddington doesn't properly understand what various words actually mean. I think there may be some interesting stuff in there about how one understands the nature of reality in the light of scientific discoveries about the composition of matter but they are quite hard to dig out. I'm in two minds about whether to persevere with it.

Listening: While Doctor Who was on I was listening to a variety of review podcasts (mostly Verity, Radio Free Skaro and The Oodcast) but I'll be cutting back since The Oodcast generally doesn't broadcast anymore once the season has ended and I'm fairly selective about RFS. Given I'm running a lot at the moment this is freeing up listening time - though there are a lot of back editions of Verity I haven't heard yet.

Watching: We've picked up The Avengers again. It must be said, while I think most people consider the colour Mrs Peel episodes to be the best of the series, I have a preference for the less fantastical black and white stories.

Comments

[daniel-saunders.livejournal.com]

I know Eddington mainly as the person who said that quantum theory made it possible for an intelligent person to believe in God again.

I prefer the black and white Emma Peel episodes. I think the scripts are stronger and the limitations of the production are obscured better in black and white, which is also more atmospheric.

[purplecat]

Yes, it does seem from the commentary that Eddington gets to some kind of theism via a concept of a platonic realm. I'm not convinced, however, that the best way to critique his argument is to nitpick at his use of the word "solid" (for instance).

In fact, I get the impression the book is much more about showing Eddington is wrong than constructing a thesis of its own.

[liadt]

I think the black and white Peel episodes are seen as being stronger on the whole with better scripts, while the colour ones use colour to paper over the cracks? I think the b/w ones are better too.

[purplecat]

I'm beginning to think my impression that everyone preferred the colour ones is wrong...