The universe inside us

…Andrew Davison, a theologian at the University of Oxford who has written about the implications of extraterrestrial life, said in an interview that one of the “great provocations” of the cosmos is that, in it, “human beings seem unbelievably small, but also it bears witness to our greatness.”

He added, “We are a kind of being that can have that whole universe inside us, in our thoughts.”

For many astronauts, what begins as a scientific endeavor becomes something spiritual. Frank White, a space philosopher, coined the term “the overview effect” in 1987 to describe the shift in perspective that some astronauts said came from viewing Earth as merely one small sphere in an endless expanse...

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/11/us/artemis-landing-splashdown-moon.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Questions APR 14

Chapters/Argument #s 10-18. Presentation: Amanda

1. Select one of the first 18 chapters and one of the 18 Appendix arguments: compare, contrast, discuss, evaluate... Can you discern an "argument" (with explicit premises, inferences, & conclusions) in the chapter? Is that what most people mean when they speak of an argument they think supports their point of view? Should they? 
2. Does the quest for "Hellenism," the spirit of Greek philosophy that exalts art and embodiment, necessarily represent a repudiation of "religious purity" and an endorsement of cosmopolitanism? 126  More broadly, do you think philosophy and religion can peaceably coexist in mutual tolerance and respect?
3. What do you think of the way Klapper and the Rebbe regard women? 
4. Do you think the existence of bright and precocious children somehow supports the likelihood that an omnipotent (etc.) god exists?
5. Do you think there are good arguments (in the philosophical/logical or the colloquial/everyday sense) against atheism?
6. A story in the Sunday NYTimes discussed the feelings of "reverence" evoked for many by the just-concluded Artemis moon mission. Others hear a more secular/humanist message in astronaut Koch's statement that planet Earth is a "crew"... What do you think? Are you inspired by Artemis, either in religious or humanist terms? ["Are you a humanist?"]  Do you share Edgar Mitchell's lunar perspective?
7. 
   

A Light That’s Both Historical and Eternal’

Against atheism https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/12/opinion/jesus-christianity-atheism.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Bloom = Klapper?

“One day there will have to be a biography of Harold Bloom. It is inevitable. And rightly so. No other critic was so forceful and passionate a presence in the minds of so many readers. Even today, while I was reading the new book of letters written between Bloom and a series of poets, my neighbour came and chatted with me on the decking, and immediately upon seeing The Man Read Everything she said, ‘Oh I love Harold Bloom.” Until readers get the biography, these letters shall have to suffice. I could only wish for the book to be several times longer. Inevitably, whatever else is said about these letters, the usual debates will recur, about whether Bloom was a fraud, a nonsense monger, so crazy that one imagines him, as John Carey once said, convinced that there are death rays coming from the television. Many others have more muted and reasonable objections to Bloom’s avowedly anti-rationalist style. It is for each reader to decide such things—a principle Bloom would have insisted upon throughout his career...” Henry Oliver https://open.substack.com/pub/commonreader/p/the-man-who-read-everything?r=35ogp&utm_medium=ios

Lunar perspective

Artemis renews this compulsion:

MTSU’s April 17 Applied Philosophy Lyceum speaker to explore the ‘fractured self’

Some fractured facts in this story: we did not begin as "two separate departments," the Dept of Philosophy added Religious Studies to its title and mission a few years ago. Previously, there was no Department of Religious Studies at MTSU. Their speaker series is called a Colloquium, not a Lyceum, a name which has its specific roots in the ancient Athenian school of Aristotle called the Lyceum.

But we're grateful for the publicity. All good. Looking forward to the event.

https://mtsunews.com/dianda-philosophy-lyceum-dianda-2026/

Lyceum Apr 17