“Was not their mistake once more bred of the life of slavery that they had been living?—a life which was always looking upon everything, except mankind, animate and inanimate—‘nature,’ as people used to call it—as one thing, and mankind as another, it was natural to people thinking in this way, that they should try to make ‘nature’ their slave, since they thought ‘nature’ was something outside them” — William Morris


Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Don't Get Upset, You Won't Persuade Anyone

That seems to be the implicit injunction in this rather scientistic account of arguments for working on global warming. Thanks to Jairus Grove of The Contemporary Condition for showing this to me.

It sounds a little bit like the way Republicans sometimes frame the debate about taxes: “Don't be starting any class warfare, now!”

The underlying assumption is that strong emotions are me-centric. An idea that's had a lot of traction, at least since Plato: the dichotomy between your head and your heart.

This cannot be the case. My nine-month old son was crying when his sister cried, because his mirror neurons were developing so fast. End of conversation?

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