• August 27, 2013

53. What is creativity? How can it be taught? How is it important? And should creative, arts and performance skills be a compulsory part of the education curriculum? (proposed by Bill & Thor; discussed September 8, 2013)

Politi­cians and man­age­ment gurus tell us end­less­ly that inno­va­tion is crit­i­cal to nation­al sur­vival. Yet inno­va­tion requires cre­ativ­i­ty, and cre­ativ­i­ty needs a mind­set which does not usu­al­ly spring from accoun­tants and process work­ers. In fact, the most dynam­ic part of many economies world­wide is (and always has been) found in arts, music, film, per­for­mance skills,…

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46. Some people consider themselves to be “spiritual”. What does this really mean? (proposed by Bill) debated October 19, 2013

Are we all in fact spir­i­tu­al? Is this term sim­ply a vague, redun­dant descrip­tion? A read­ing list for this top­ic is online at http://thormay.net/unwiseideas/DiscussionTopics/SpiritualPeople.htm  (Sug­ges­tions for addi­tions are wel­come)

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45. Is love an evolutionary instinct? Is there more to it? (proposed by Bill) — discussed 3 November 2013

Is love an evo­lu­tion­ary instinct? I.e., is it an innate, uncon­scious impulse that has been encod­ed into our genes over mil­lions of years as a mech­a­nism to ensure the sur­vival of (the whole or indi­vid­u­al mem­bers of) the species? Or is there more to it? Is there anoth­er way to explain it? Do all ani­mals…

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