Phillip B. posted an article on On the Human - Feb 7, 2012, 9:32 am
Geoffrey Harpham, Director, National Humanities Center When I stumbled upon the future, I was actually looking for the past. In the 1990s, I was trying to write a book about why the concept of language had so dominated the intellectual history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. At some p...
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Phillip B. posted an article on On the Human - Jan 23, 2012, 8:21 pm
In Geoffrey Harpham’s first contribution to “On the Human” he wrote, One of the most striking features of contemporary intellectual life is the fact that questions formerly reserved for the humanities are today being approached by scientists in various disciplines such as cognitive science, ...
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Phillip B. posted an article on Nicomachus - Jan 13, 2012, 4:53 pm
As many of you know, I am deeply interested in ways that developments in digital technology change our relationship to traditional cultural values, especially when it comes to the digital’s impact on...
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Phillip B. posted an article on Nicomachus - Jan 12, 2012, 4:55 pm
Thanks to Taft Matney for this note about The Outspokin’ Cyclist in the new Crescent magazine. “As South Carolina’s larger cities work to make traffic flow more friendly and attractive for bicycles,...
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Phillip B. posted an article on On the Human - Jan 9, 2012, 4:09 pm
There is an interesting question as to why those in the humanities – most notably literary studies – have felt so dissatisfied with their performance as not just to re-invent themselves – which is fine and healthy – but to attempt to destroy their very rationale. I want to examine a tendency...
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Phillip B. posted an article on On the Human - Dec 26, 2011, 12:09 pm
The prospect of machines capable of following moral principles, let alone understanding them, seems as remote today as the word "robot" is old. Some technologists enthusiastically extrapolate from the observation that computing power doubles every 18 months to predict an imminent "technological sing...
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Phillip B. posted an article on On the Human - Dec 12, 2011, 11:24 am
When, if ever, should we intentionally shorten our lives? Programming our own deaths is not a subject many people seem to have thought much about. But think about it we must. For biotechnologies continue to advance, our psychological identities continue to depend on our being embodied, and more and ...
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Phillip B. posted an article on Nicomachus - Dec 7, 2011, 6:51 pm
Amazon’s knocked the price of the Kindle edition down to $5.38. I didn’t know anything about this until I saw the new price on their website. Their loss is your gain. Let me know if you...
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Phillip B. posted an article on On the Human - Nov 27, 2011, 8:42 pm
Although meat is said to be the most highly prized category of food in the majority of human cultures, it is also, according to a recent ethnographic survey, “vastly more likely to be the target of food taboos,” than any other type of edible substance.[1] People throughout the world display stro...
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Phillip B. posted an article on Nicomachus - Nov 16, 2011, 5:33 pm
I am excited to launch OccuPoetry today with new poetry by Carrie Osborne of Oakland, CA. A collaboration with my good friend Katy Ryan, OccuPoetry is a poetry project, publishing art in support of...
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Phillip B. posted an article on On the Human - Nov 13, 2011, 9:22 pm
Professor Harriet Ritvo People were on the move in the nineteenth century. Millions of men and women participated in massive transfers of human population, spurred by war, famine, persecution, the search for a better life, or (most rarely) the spirit of adventure. The largest of these transfers—...
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Phillip B. posted an article on Nicomachus - Nov 10, 2011, 4:30 am
Tomorrow is Corduroy Day, 11/11. But not just any old Corduroy Day, which comes once each November; tomorrow’s date marks one that comes only once ever 100 years. 11/11/11 Learn more with Bill...
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Phillip B. posted an article on On the Human - Oct 31, 2011, 9:40 am
Philosophers have traditionally assumed that knowledge of our own thoughts is special. Descartes famously believed that knowledge of our current thoughts is infallible. He also believed that those thoughts themselves are self-presenting, so that whenever one entertains a thought, one is capable of i...
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Phillip B. posted an article on Nicomachus - Oct 20, 2011, 11:55 pm
With a literary nod to one of my favorite cycling websites, Cars R Coffins, I give you a verse from Planetary Man (Hombre Planetario), an epic poem composed between 1957 and 1963 by Jorge Carrera...
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Phillip B. posted an article on Nicomachus - Oct 19, 2011, 6:53 pm
The Outspokin’ Cyclist now has its own website with information about how to order the book, the handful or reviews and news the book has earned, and a blog. One feature I’ll point out...
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Phillip B. posted an article on On the Human - Oct 17, 2011, 8:20 pm
Les Kaufman, Professor of Biology, Boston University Slow news days send hungry journalists back to the old springheads of mystery and metamorphosis: dark matter, how the brain really works, human cyborgs, life on other worlds.  The nature of humanity’s relationship with Nature — the oldest cam...
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Phillip B. posted an article on Nicomachus - Oct 17, 2011, 7:36 pm
I wrote the columns for my last hometown paper. My new hometown paper has a feature on the book. Davis is the first town in the United States to achieve the designation  as a Platinum Bicycle...
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Phillip B. posted an article on Nicomachus - Oct 17, 2011, 2:39 am
Lately, I have been writing more poetry than prose. Working at the National Humanities Center, I had the opportunity to meet and be influenced by some extraordinary poets, like Piotr Sommer, Mary...
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Phillip B. posted an article on Nicomachus - Oct 5, 2011, 4:31 pm
This Sunday, October 9th, is the final Bull City Open Streets. Plan to head down to Central Park in Durham between 1 and 4pm to find the streets closed off to cars and plenty of room to enjoy biking...
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Phillip B. posted an article on Nicomachus - Oct 4, 2011, 7:08 pm
Thanks to Courtnee Felton of Sweet Georgia Brown for offering the first review of my new book, The Outspokin’ Cyclist.  I appreciate the Zen nature of the book’s first part “Why I...
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Phillip B. posted an article on On the Human - Oct 3, 2011, 4:25 pm
Vigdis Broch-Due, Professor of Social Anthropology and International Poverty Research, University of Bergen, Norway It is a commonplace that East African pastoralists like Turkana of Northern Kenya identify themselves with their animals. However it really goes far beyond that. To grasp not just the ...
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Phillip B. posted an article on Nicomachus - Sep 23, 2011, 7:32 pm
The Outspokin’ Cyclist got a mention this week in the faculty and staff newsletter for the University of California, Davis. “Back when he lived in Durham, N.C., Phillip Barron wrote a...
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Phillip B. posted an article on Nicomachus - Sep 22, 2011, 1:13 pm
September 22nd is Car Free Day. Shift it into high gear, and enjoy your ride.  
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Phillip B. posted an article on On the Human - Sep 19, 2011, 8:24 pm
Whatever social changes have occurred that involve race, our children are not different from us in their implicit race attitude. What does this mean, given the change in gender stereotypes by age? Does it mean that in spite of all the changes since civil rights legislation, social change and media c...
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Phillip B. posted an article on Nicomachus - Sep 19, 2011, 7:28 pm
I noticed this while out for a rural bike ride on Sunday. What I want to know is, how would you fight a mountain lion?  
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Phillip B. posted an article on On the Human - Sep 4, 2011, 6:28 pm
Thomas Pogge, Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs chair, Yale University With some of the goods and services we consume, supplying the first unit costs vastly more than the rest. Building a subway line costs billions. The additional cost of making it carry more passengers is ...
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Phillip B. posted an article on Nicomachus - Sep 2, 2011, 4:05 pm
The Outspokin’ Cyclist is now available in epub. You can buy it from Goodreads for $6.99 (same price as the Kindle version over at Amazon). The epub version will work on iPads and iPhones...
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Phillip B. posted an article on Nicomachus - Aug 26, 2011, 8:42 pm
Step 1: receive a big box from UPS Step 2: strap the box to your bike Step 3: ride home Step 4: stop making such a big deal out of it  
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Phillip B. posted an article on Nicomachus - Aug 23, 2011, 2:47 am
Visting Durham this summer made me realize how much I miss my old stompin’ grounds. So I’ve found myself in the habit, recently, of opening up old website bookmarks and browsing the Bull...
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Phillip B. posted an article on On the Human - Aug 16, 2011, 11:08 am
If we understand human rights as inalienable rights that flow from the mere fact of being human, it is hard to escape the conclusion that here in the United States prisoners and convicted offenders more generally do not count, at least in the eyes of the law and a vocal minority of opinion-shapers, ...
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Phillip B. posted an article on Nicomachus - Aug 15, 2011, 7:17 pm
Earlier this summer, I contributed a media review to the journal Transformations as part of an issue dedicated to teaching digital media. The issue is not yet available electronically (JSTOR and...
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Phillip B. posted an article on Nicomachus - Jul 31, 2011, 11:04 pm
I am a cyclist. To say as much sounds strange to me. Not because it isn’t true, but because it is true. Riding a bicycle — for transportation, for errands, for joy — is something I do without...
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Phillip B. posted an article on On the Human - Jul 17, 2011, 10:00 pm
Human Rights are all the rage. They have become, currently, a very popular arena for both political activism and rampant discourse. Human rights, as we all know, are the rights humans are due simply by virtue of being human. But there is nothing simple here, since both “human” and “rights” a...
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Phillip B. posted an article on Nicomachus - Jul 11, 2011, 2:33 pm
If you’ve got a new Google+ account, you probably are contemplating whether you really want to spend time investing in one more social network. Given the significant privacy enhancements over...
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Phillip B. posted an article on Nicomachus - Jul 1, 2011, 3:05 pm
With 75 responses so far, here’s a peak at the results of the survey. If you have not yet voiced your opinion on whether ereaders are ready for academic use, please take the survey. Note: if...
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Phillip B. posted an article on Nicomachus - Jul 1, 2011, 11:37 am
Few bike racks in Davis are topped with this symbol.  
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Phillip B. posted an article on Nicomachus - Jun 23, 2011, 6:16 pm
This is an update to previous posts in which I explained why, when I decided to step into the ereader market, I originally chose the Sony Reader. After a bad experience with...
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Phillip B. posted an article on On the Human - Jun 19, 2011, 5:22 pm
Though conditions of captivity vary considerably for humans and for other animals, two of the central philosophical issues that emerge in discussions of human imprisonment prove instructive in thinking through the ethical issues raised by captivity for non-humans — autonomy and dignity. When capti...
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Phillip B. posted an article on On the Human - Jun 6, 2011, 10:39 am
The Star Wars character C3PO is so convincingly depicted that we may have to remind ourselves that there was no real robot behind the elegant mannequin. The passage of time has not remedied this deficiency; nor, alas, have I a blueprint to offer. I do believe, however, that it will repay us to ident...
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Phillip B. posted an article on Nicomachus - May 26, 2011, 2:57 pm
In the commercial world of book sales, ereaders have surged into the spotlight over the last few years. Book retailers Amazon and Barnes and Noble each release new models of their dedicated ebook...
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Phillip B. posted an article on On the Human - May 23, 2011, 12:47 pm
The trajectory of the development of emerging enhancement technologies suggests that it is not premature to begin considering ethical issues associated with robust human enhancement—i.e. creation of people with highly augmented or highly novel capacities through technological modification of (or i...
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Phillip B. posted an article on On the Human - May 12, 2011, 11:36 am
Some nonhuman animals resemble normal humans in morally relevant ways. In particular, they bring the mystery of a unified psychological presence to the world. Like us, they possess a variety of sensory, cognitive, conative, and volitional capacities. They see and hear, believe and desire, remember a...
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Phillip B. posted an article on Nicomachus - May 11, 2011, 9:30 am
Codex Telleriano-Remensis (c. 1563) In February, The History Project at UC Davis launched the expanded and improved Marchand Archive: a growing digital collection of images and lesson plans, freely...
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Phillip B. posted an article on Nicomachus - May 4, 2011, 6:05 pm
Over the 2008-2009 academic year, I got to work with Rachel Blau DuPlessis. Rachel is a feminist poet, literary critic, and editor of some great collections of modern poetry. A prolific writer and...
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Phillip B. posted an article on On the Human - May 2, 2011, 10:51 am
The word “culture” is sometimes recruited as a proxy for “race” in common parlance, and the familiar story of race predisposes us to understand the differences between European and Asian populations in biological, rather than cultural, terms. Culture is a significant shaper of human cognitio...
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Phillip B. posted an article on Nicomachus - Apr 29, 2011, 11:44 pm
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain My rating: 4 of 5 stars Much is made, from a critical perspective, of the improbability of a young white boy from 1840s Missouri learning to respect a...
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Phillip B. posted an article on Nicomachus - Apr 22, 2011, 10:09 pm
Pete Warden, founder of Data Science Toolkit, and Allasdair Allan, a research fellow at the University of Exeter, recently stumbled upon a database, hidden in the backups of iPhones and iPads, which...
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Phillip B. posted an article on On the Human - Apr 17, 2011, 3:41 pm
It is "easy" to explain doing, "hard" to explain feeling. Turing has set the agenda for the easy explanation (though it will be a long time coming). I will try to explain why and how explaining feeling will not only be hard, but impossible. Explaining meaning will prove almost as hard because meanin...
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Phillip B. posted an article on Nicomachus - Apr 9, 2011, 6:40 pm
An organization called the Green Press Initiative has recently released a report summarizing the environmental impact of e-books and e-readers, comparing the growing e-book market to the traditional...
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Phillip B. posted an article on Nicomachus - Apr 6, 2011, 10:07 pm
The temperature is a glorious 68º, there is not a cloud in the sky, and sun’s warmth beckons everyone outdoors. I tried sitting outside to read tonight, but the yellow breeze blew back. Pollen...
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