A short reading guide to Humble Knowledge
Important reading so you can understand what this Substack is about
One of the challenges of publishing on a blog platform is that old posts tend to get quickly forgotten. This is no problem if the content is a running commentary on current affairs. However, my project here is to build out an intellectual project, so what I have written in the past continues to be highly relevant.
I have now published too much here to produce a useful, comprehensive guide that covers everything. So, instead, here is a short overview of the most important, or interesting, articles. In short, if you read these then you’ll have a good overview of my project - and, I hope, encounter some provocative ideas that get you thinking. This guide is in three parts: Philosophy; Reflections on our Human Condition; and Technology.
Philosophy
If you only read one article here, I would strongly suggest the following. It is a summary of my core ideas about what knowledge is and how it works - and links other articles to look at.
My second recommendation for philosophical articles are a series of ‘Epistemic Histories of Western Thought’, currently in three parts: (i) up to the 17th century, (ii) more recent core philosophers, and (iii) the development of science.
There are also articles on critical theory, paradoxes, mathematics, postmodernism, political theory, chaos theory and quantum physics.
Reflections on our Human Condition
Amongst articles on story-telling, creativity, cognitive biases, everyday humility and misinformation, I’d recommend the following two articles as a useful - and perhaps provocative - starting point.
Technology
The big story of 2023, with philosophical implications, was obviously Artificial Intelligence. If you’re interested in a philosophically informed view based on the structure of AI information processing, check out these two articles.
