Religious Studies News: big data approach to history
“While users can use the DRH similarly to an encyclopedia—that is, looking at individual entries—the database also reflects a Big Data approach to comparing and understanding large scale patterns or trends in the historical record.
Yes, although you can browse individual entries as in an encyclopedia, the DRH is actually a relational database with all of the powerful functionality that comes with the ability to manipulate data on a large scale. Answers to the various poll questions are ultimately grounded only in space and time, which allows users to analyze answers to specific questions within certain date ranges and geographical areas, to correlate answers with other types of geo-spacial data, or to visualize DRH data in a variety of ways.”
“Making Religious History Digitally Native,”Religious Studies News, March 2nd 2017
The Wall Street Journal: spontaneity is scarce these days
“Spontaneity, always in short supply, is scarce these days. It is nearly impossible to get reservations for dinner at coveted restaurants. Movies sell out, and vacations are planned to the 15-minute increment. A month ahead, parents can be sure their child gets into an art activity at the local museum and reserve ice cream at the nearby cafe for lunch afterward.”
Nina Sovich, “The Age of Organized Spontaneity,” The Wall Street Journal, February 2nd 2016.
Science: People are nicer when god is watching
“People are nicer to each other when they think someone is watching, many psychology studies have shown—especially if they believe that someone has the power to punish them for transgressions even after they’re dead. That’s why some scientists think that belief in the high gods of moralizing religions, such as Islam and Christianity, helped people cooperate with each other and encouraged societies to grow. An innovative study of 96 societies in the Pacific now suggests that a culture might not need to believe in omniscient, moral gods in order to reap the benefits of religion in the form of political complexity. All they need is the threat of supernatural punishment, even if the deities in question don’t care about morality and act on personal whims, the new work concludes.”
Lizzie Wade, “To Foster complex Societies, Tell People a God is Watching,” Science, March 4th, 2015.
China Daily USA: Not the best way to get ahead
“Just in time for the season of reform and New Year’s resolutions, comes a new book that uses ancient Chinese philosophy to argue that sometimes trying hard is not the best way to get ahead.”
Chris David, “New Year’s Resolution Number One: Try Not to Try,” China Daily USA, January 1st 2015.
The Sydney Morning Herald: go with the flow
“It is endlessly frustrating to be told to “just relax” or “just be yourself” when you’re feeling anything but. Often, being told to “take it easy” makes you feel even more self-conscious and stressed.
But, according to Professor Edward Slingerland, it’s exactly that “go with the flow” state that we should strive to achieve.”
Rachel Clun, “The art of just being yourself,” The Sydney Morning Herald, December 17th, 2014.
The New York Times: a paradox essential to civilization
“How you can force yourself to relax? How can you try not to try?
It makes no sense, but the paradox is essential to civilization, according to Edward Slingerland. He has developed, quite deliberately, a theory of spontaneity based on millenniums of Asian philosophy and decades of research by psychologists and neuroscientists.”
John Tierney, “A Meditation on the Art of Not Trying,” The New York Times, December 15th, 2014.
Science: The rise of moralistic religions
“Today’s most popular religions all have one thing in common: a focus on morality. But the gods didn’t always care whether you are a bad person. Researchers have long puzzled over when and why religions moved away from a singular focus on ritual and began to encourage traits such as self-discipline, restraint, and asceticism. Now, a new study proposes that the key to the rise of so-called moralizing religions was, of all things, more wealth.”
Lizzie Wade, “Wealth may have driven the rise of today’s religions,” Science, December 11th 2014.
The Atlantic: the enemy of cool
“Calculation is the enemy of cool, it seems. Earlier this year I spoke with Edward Slingerland, a professor of Asian studies at the University of British Columbia, who studies cool full-time. In a post called “How to Not Try,” he explained to me four approaches to not trying. I think about them constantly.”
James Hamblin, “No one Wins the Breakup on Social Media,” The Atlantic, December 4th 2014.
The Guardian: Russell Brand on monkeys and inequality
“Edward Slingerland, a professor of ancient Chinese philosophy at Stanford University, demonstrated this instinct to me with the use of hazelnuts. As we spoke, there was a bowl of them on the table. “Russell,” he said, scooping up a handful, “we humans have an inbuilt tendency towards fairness. If offered an unfair deal, we will want to reject it. If I have a huge bowl of nuts and offer you just one or two, how do you feel?”
The answer was actually quite complex.”
Russell Brand, “What Monkeys and the Queen Taught Me about Inequality,” The Guardian, October 13th 2014.
Los Angeles Review of Books: art and unselfconscious spontaneity
“Almost all the arts of life are enhanced when performed with unselfconscious spontaneity — think shooting hoops, playing a complicated musical passage, dining with friends. The moment we try not to try is often the moment performance collapses in a counterproductive muddle. This “paradox of wu-wei,” as Edward Slingerland calls it, can be explained as the goal of trying not to try. This ambitious book reprises much of the author’s previous work on classical Chinese philosophical cultivation of wu-wei (see his 2003 book, Effortless action) and broadens the scope of his previous engagement with cognitive science, particularly notions of embodied mind.”
Andrew B. Irvine, “The Paradox of wu-wei,” Los Angeles Review of Books, September 2nd 2014.