Richard Douglas
@maitrereynard.bsky.social
Research Fellow, Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity, University of Surrey. Wombles. Yes, and armchair Spurs. Go Thorns. Commanders. Trying to see the positives. https://cusp.ac.uk/about/fellowship/r_douglas/
Iain McGilchrist in @jonathanrowson.bsky.social's Spiritualise report. I have much the same thought every time some AI assistant tries to justify its existence by popping up and asking if I want it to summarise whatever I'm reading.
![“McGilchrist puts it like this: “There’s a danger, in my terms, of the left hemisphere [of the brain] having to collapse things too quickly into something familiar, ‘what is it precisely?’, leaving, therefore, no place for the intuited and the implicit, through which alone all great ideas in art, in religion, and in our lives are communicated. Making things more explicit doesn’t actually make them easier to understand: it means we understand something other than what it is we are seeking to know.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5ye523fps3n6ignty3dwhsuj/bafkreie2rfsncbvxtqo23ivyard54mqcqzzb3xyzu6sqawvjjv2anunqtu@jpeg)
October 22, 2025 at 6:24 AM
Iain McGilchrist in @jonathanrowson.bsky.social's Spiritualise report. I have much the same thought every time some AI assistant tries to justify its existence by popping up and asking if I want it to summarise whatever I'm reading.
Rereading @jonathanrowson.bsky.social's landmark Spiritualise report for a talk I'm giving in December. Have got to the chapter on death. This is a good one to remind ourselves of. (Point 2 refers essentially to job-work, and not the meaningful kind.)
October 19, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Rereading @jonathanrowson.bsky.social's landmark Spiritualise report for a talk I'm giving in December. Have got to the chapter on death. This is a good one to remind ourselves of. (Point 2 refers essentially to job-work, and not the meaningful kind.)
Extremely grateful for these endorsements from some seriously brilliant people…
September 30, 2025 at 6:51 AM
Extremely grateful for these endorsements from some seriously brilliant people…
Paul Thagard on ‘philosophology’, as Pirsig would have put it.
September 3, 2025 at 9:15 AM
Paul Thagard on ‘philosophology’, as Pirsig would have put it.
Walked from Wandsworth Town to Richmond today, adapting a stage of the South London Parks Way.
August 10, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Walked from Wandsworth Town to Richmond today, adapting a stage of the South London Parks Way.
Proceeding with my current odyssey of albums from 1968, I’ve arrived at far and away the best so far - Donovan’s Gift From a Flower to a Garden. The second half especially, these are the loveliest songs of deep, inner peace.
June 19, 2025 at 11:10 PM
Proceeding with my current odyssey of albums from 1968, I’ve arrived at far and away the best so far - Donovan’s Gift From a Flower to a Garden. The second half especially, these are the loveliest songs of deep, inner peace.
That’s altogether too many names.
June 18, 2025 at 9:07 AM
That’s altogether too many names.
I see the ECB is doing another review of English county cricket.
June 15, 2025 at 9:19 PM
I see the ECB is doing another review of English county cricket.
Das Boot. And from the other side, In Which We Serve.
June 15, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Das Boot. And from the other side, In Which We Serve.
I’ve been on a little odyssey of albums from 1968 lately, and next on my list yesterday was the Beach Boys’ Friends. Never listened to it before. Have listened to it several times since yesterday. It’s lovely.
June 12, 2025 at 8:38 PM
I’ve been on a little odyssey of albums from 1968 lately, and next on my list yesterday was the Beach Boys’ Friends. Never listened to it before. Have listened to it several times since yesterday. It’s lovely.
Scouse philosophy.
April 19, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Scouse philosophy.
What would they make of the
B - O - Y - S
Boys to entertain you?
B - O - Y - S
Boys to entertain you?
April 17, 2025 at 4:06 PM
What would they make of the
B - O - Y - S
Boys to entertain you?
B - O - Y - S
Boys to entertain you?
Made a note of this as it was quite the authoritative statement of academic thought on contemporary populism. Could almost refer to it as Mudde and Mueller 2025.
April 17, 2025 at 7:35 AM
Made a note of this as it was quite the authoritative statement of academic thought on contemporary populism. Could almost refer to it as Mudde and Mueller 2025.
This is something - Kenneth Williams does Jesus. On Radio 4 right now.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
April 12, 2025 at 7:36 PM
This is something - Kenneth Williams does Jesus. On Radio 4 right now.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
Reading Arlie Russell Hochschild's Stolen Pride, I'm reminded of how much American capitalism resembles Soviet Stalinism in its equal disregard for its people and its environment. And in America, it's the people who suffer the worst of it who keep on voting for more of it - to get it good and hard.
April 6, 2025 at 9:31 AM
Reading Arlie Russell Hochschild's Stolen Pride, I'm reminded of how much American capitalism resembles Soviet Stalinism in its equal disregard for its people and its environment. And in America, it's the people who suffer the worst of it who keep on voting for more of it - to get it good and hard.
I mean, she was there to be skewered. But goodness me, Craig Brown didn’t miss.
April 5, 2025 at 4:53 PM
I mean, she was there to be skewered. But goodness me, Craig Brown didn’t miss.
This is how it concludes.
March 22, 2025 at 8:49 PM
This is how it concludes.
How did I not know this? Dietrich Bonhoeffer lived in Forest Hill from 1933-35. I knew there was a Dietrich Bonhoeffer Church nearby, but not that he had lived here himself.
February 8, 2025 at 5:35 PM
How did I not know this? Dietrich Bonhoeffer lived in Forest Hill from 1933-35. I knew there was a Dietrich Bonhoeffer Church nearby, but not that he had lived here himself.