In ancient Rome, the genius was the guiding spirit of a person. In some people, this spirit shown more brightly and they came to be known as “geniuses.” Today, we recognize special people with highly developed skills in music, art, science and other fields as “geniuses.” Most people have heard of geniuses: Mozart, Rembrandt, and Einstein, to name a few. One field of thought suggests that geniuses are born, not made, as if genius is written in the genetic code. But perhaps the Romans were right and each of us has a guiding spirit that we only need to tap to find our own genius. In this show, Manjir Samanta-Laughton, author of Punk Science and The Genius Groove, joins host Philip Mereton in a discussion of what the new developing scientific paradigm is saying about the hidden genius buried in all of us, and what we can do to find...
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Punk is a term more often associated with fierce rock music and harsh lyrics than as a form of science. The legacy of punk rock is one of rebellion, attacking conventional society and mainstream culture. “Punk Science” is also the name of a book by this week’s guest, Manjir Samanta-Laughton, of the UK, who has gained international fame for interpreting the findings of physics and cosmology in a new and creative way, and one that challenges mainstream science’s fundamental paradigm. She joins host Philip Mereton in a conversation about what a new scientific paradigm might look like and her own Black Hole Principle. Listen to this Episode...
It’s hard to argue with the value of an open mind. It’s also hard to argue that many people have one. The problem seems to be that modern life feeds us with so many stereotypes, beliefs, labels, prejudices, and biases with which to categorize our world that we stop thinking “like a child” and more like someone “set in their ways.” Pigeonholing saves time in a hectic world. On this show, Tim Boyd, President of the Theosophical Society, joins host Philip Mereton in a discussion of how open-mindedness is something that not only advances our appreciation for the variety of life, but may also lead us to understand better our true inner nature. Also, in a Something More episode, Philip talks with co-director, Robin Beck of Kima Publishers out of South Africa, about dramatic changes occurring in the publishing world and how his 20-year business continues to prosper. Listen to...
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What is the meaning of life? Of all Big Questions, this one may be at once the biggest, and the most befuddling. But can we proceed through life without at some point confronting the question? And, more importantly, does the question have an answer? On this show, Professor Jay Garfield of Smith College and the University of Melbourne (among other institutions), and lecturer for the Teaching Company’s course, The Meaning of Life: Perspectives from the World’s Great Intellectual Traditions, joins host Philip Mereton in an invigorating discussion of different ways to approach this perennial question, and how we might learn from some of history’s great thinkers to find the meaning in our own lives. Listen to this episode...
In a recent article on Scientific American’s website, entitled Consolation of Philosophy, http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-consolation-of-philos&page=2, Professor Lawrence Krauss expounds on some of the themes in his book, A Universe from Nothing, and concludes that philosophy has nothing of importance to tell us about the real world, and that only physics can lead us to truth. Professor Krauss, in rejecting philosophy, fails to acknowledge that he is promoting his own brand of philosophy known as scientific materialism. So what he really seems to be saying is that scientific materialism is the final truth, and we should not bother considering any other alternative. But scientific materialism – the view that a real world of matter exists independently of consciousness – has a number of fatal flaws. Two of them are (1) several great thinkers, such as Bishop George Berkeley, David Hume, and Immanuel Kant, showed that we can never prove that such a real world of matter...
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