Doubt the Experts

I'm behind on my posts because I haven't had much to say. The arrival of spring always prompts changes in my daily activities. I spe...

I had hoped to start another book by now, but the one I ordered is new and isn't currently available. I am still thinking about Vinod Go...

I've finished the book and overall find it to be quite good. I'll just sum up my reaction to the last few chapters. One of the chapt...

This is not a particularly long book, but I am reading it in short segments because it is written primarily for academics, and I've neve...

While, so far, I am broadly in agreement with Goel's model, I am not particularly enjoying the presentation, which includes a fairly det...

I'm now underway on this new book by Vinod Goel, and will be discussing it for a few weeks. Goel is a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscienc...

I am currently going through another rethink on what to read and discuss on this blog. In the absence of any feedback, I am inclined to just...

When I began this blog eight years ago, the impetus was my frustration with online publications and Internet discussion generally. I had not...

We're having a more normal Vermont winter this year, which is what I prefer. If there isn't at least a foot of snow on the ground an...

When Voltaire's reputation in Geneva declined among the patricians, he moved out permanently from Les Délices. Ferney became his primary...

Voltaire stayed with Émilie du Châtelet for several more years, but kept Marie Louise Denis as a backup. The latter was about eighteen years...

I am plugging away slowly, as usual, and am about halfway through the book. Voltaire had such an active public life that it becomes exhausti...

I finally got around to starting this biography by Ian Davidson. Davidson is not a scholar of French intellectual history, and this was writ...

Before starting on Voltaire, I decided to read this short volume by Mark Pawlak. Pawlak is a poet and math professor, and the book is a memo...

As previously, I'm not enjoying the pandemic much. Though I feel fairly safe, having had my booster shot and wearing a mask when appropr...

 As we move into December, COVID-19 is breaking records in Vermont, though, fortunately, since the beginning of the pandemic Vermont is stil...

For a diversion, I read this short novel, which is almost short-story length, by  Lászl ó   Krasznahorkai. As with his other writings, it is...

After reading a long string of nonfiction books, I usually begin to crave some good fiction, and, as you know, I always have trouble finding...