Professional Historian and History Consultancy Services Brisbane
Category: Concepts in UQ Philosophy and History
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John Searle Obituary, from “The Guardian” with a few comments from the Work of Dr Buch
John Searle obituary American philosopher whose Chinese Room thought experiment rebuts the idea that computers can think as humans do Jane O’Grady, The Guardian Sun 5 Oct 2025 22.29 AEDT The American philosopher John Searle, who has died aged 93, first made his name in philosophy of language, then in philosophy of…
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The (last) 2025 Ed Conrad Memorial Lecture: The Bible and the Rise of Science, Emeritus Professor Peter Harrison
The School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry (HAPI) has released recording of “The (last) 2025 Ed Conrad Memorial Lecture: The Bible and the Rise of Science, Emeritus Professor Peter Harrison”. 2025 Ed Conrad Memorial Lecture- The Bible and the Rise of Science Transcript It is required…
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Re: Hermeneutics and that I had discovered the 12 Apostles with my answer to life!
The number 42 is famously known as “the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything” in Douglas Adams’ science fiction series, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. A supercomputer named Deep Thought computed this answer after 7.5 million years, though the question itself was never known, rendering the answer meaningless until…
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The Best Assessment on Higher Education, Globally Perceived (to date)
Ellie Bothwell, rankings editor, has given the best assessment on Higher Education, globally perceived, at least in the historical moment we have. From Ellie Bothwell, This week in higher education, The Times Higher Education Supplement (THE), daily email, 28 August 2025: It is a troubling sign of the times, and the crisis…
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Dr Neil Peach’s Dot-Points on “Political Problem”
Following insights on the structure of human life from Dr Michael Macklin, Dr Neil Peach wrote: “I can add some less remarkable points.” There is a predisposition in many social settings to avoid the political because – the small p and the capital P are conflated. Many genuine political discussions…
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Endless Reporting and Tracking, and Machine Non-Thinking
We have all experience it: Endless Reporting and Tracking, and Machine Non-Thinking. Here is a number which is meaningless: 3.6 millions are on Centrelink payments. Phillips and Narayanan (2021) of the ANU puts it more meaningful: The Australian social security system spends around $120 billion dollars in cash transfers…
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An Open Letter for Equity
By Dr Neville Buch, the opinions expressed are the author’s own On 24 July 2025, an “Open Letter to the Prime Minister: Restoring Equity in Higher Education” was produced by a distinguished group of individuals, “with a range of political beliefs whose contributions to Australian life owe significantly to our Bachelor of…
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No Blame: Understanding a Difficult Narrative
Many times, you hear a pattern of conversation, which goes: Person A: “Stop blaming me” Person B: “I’m not blaming you, you’re blaming me” Person A: “No, I am not. You are blaming me.” Person B: “No, I am not”… Bernard Williams did much work in understanding the problem of…
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Changing the Minds of University Marketers
A Post at UQ Change Makers: Early this morning I had a conversation with an old undergraduate graduate on his need to retire the nostalgia and to think about the past and present with more intelligence (double meaning). It got me thinking about the historical ideas which have been swirling…
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Australian Universities Afraid of Open Communication and Intelligent Conversation
I must apologise for posting in what would seem a simple matter of emailing the universities and asking them to stop blocking me in my legitimate, academic communications. However, you have the ‘chicken-and-egg’ problem. In order to let the authorities know they have either made a mistake or a deliberate unjust action (with no justifiable…