[{"id":310316,"date":"2026-08-26T11:45:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T15:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/?p=310316"},"modified":"2026-08-26T09:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T13:07:14","slug":"why-do-we-diminish-the-cultural-memory-of-the-wild-as-mere-instinct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/3quarksdaily\/2026\/08\/why-do-we-diminish-the-cultural-memory-of-the-wild-as-mere-instinct.html","title":{"rendered":"Why Do We Diminish the Cultural Memory of the Wild as Mere \u2018Instinct’?"},"content":{"rendered":"

From The Great Planet<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\"\"The research of Whiten and his colleagues demonstrates that there is a flexible, cultural transmission network in the wild that transcends genetics, built entirely on social learning, observation, and apprenticeship. From bumblebees teaching one another new techniques to extract pollen from flowers, to Japanese macaques washing sweet potatoes in seawater and spreading this culinary tradition throughout their colony, this system accomplishes what genes cannot: rapid communal adaptation. This is not a biological impulse; it is observed, shared, and generationally transmitted wildlife culture.<\/p>\n

To truly grasp the vital importance of this cultural transmission and the collapse of the “genetic reflex” myth, one only needs to look at a\u00a02018 study published in the journal\u00a0Science<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(Jesmer et al.) that profoundly shook the field of conservation biology.<\/p>\n

More here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From The Great Planet: The research of Whiten and his colleagues demonstrates that there is a flexible, cultural transmission network in the wild that transcends genetics, built entirely on social learning, observation, and apprenticeship. From bumblebees teaching one another new techniques to extract pollen from flowers, to Japanese macaques washing sweet potatoes in seawater and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5918],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-310316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recommended-reading","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310316"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310319,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310316\/revisions\/310319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":310330,"date":"2026-08-26T11:11:53","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T15:11:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/?p=310330"},"modified":"2026-08-26T11:11:53","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T15:11:53","slug":"samuel-becketts-proustian-moment-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/3quarksdaily\/2026\/08\/samuel-becketts-proustian-moment-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Samuel Beckett\u2019s Proustian Moment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Colin MacCabe at The New Statesman<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\"\"O<\/span>n 1 November 1928, the 22-year-old Samuel Beckett presented himself at the hyper-elite \u00c9cole Normale Sup\u00e9rieure in Paris\u2019s Latin Quarter to take up a post as\u00a0lecteur anglais<\/em>. He had been nominated for the post by Trinity College Dublin, which had already marked out Beckett as an academic star in his chosen subject of French. He was to spend two years in a sinecure (he had only one pupil) perfecting his French and undertaking research on the novelist and poet Pierre Jean Jouve. It was understood that he would return from Paris bearing considerable research work and be appointed to an earmarked post at Trinity.<\/p>\n

Beckett\u2019s lectureship got off to a rocky start. Both he and his French hosts were rather startled to find that his allocated rooms were already occupied by his predecessor, who had not yet bothered to move out. A rather embarrassing moment was resolved when another room was found for the previous\u00a0lecteur<\/em>\u00a0and Beckett moved, slightly later than anticipated, in to his designated rooms. At this point the two Irishmen, Beckett and his new acquaintance Tom MacGreevy, set off to share a drink in one of the neighbouring caf\u00e9s.<\/p>\n

more here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colin MacCabe at The New Statesman: On 1 November 1928, the 22-year-old Samuel Beckett presented himself at the hyper-elite \u00c9cole Normale Sup\u00e9rieure in Paris\u2019s Latin Quarter to take up a post as\u00a0lecteur anglais. He had been nominated for the post by Trinity College Dublin, which had already marked out Beckett as an academic star in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5918],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-310330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recommended-reading","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310330"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310333,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310330\/revisions\/310333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":310311,"date":"2026-08-26T08:51:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T12:51:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/?p=310311"},"modified":"2026-08-26T08:51:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T12:51:48","slug":"triage-how-should-we-respond-to-the-worlds-atrocities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/3quarksdaily\/2026\/08\/triage-how-should-we-respond-to-the-worlds-atrocities.html","title":{"rendered":"Triage \u2013 how should we respond to the world\u2019s atrocities?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sarah Crown in\u00a0The Guardian:<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cA<\/span>ny resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or\u00a0actual events is purely coincidental,\u201d writes the multi-award winning Jamaican-American poet, essayist and playwright\u00a0Claudia Rankine<\/a>\u00a0in the disclaimer to her latest work. \u201cUnless it isn\u2019t.\u201d The pretzel-logic of this statement, its assertive ambiguity, sets the tone for a book that\u00a0digs directly into the question of what we are to do with the idea of truth, when the world we live in is asking us \u201cto hold, visually and emotionally, realities we do not yet have a viable system of language for\u201d. In Triage, Rankine borrows from her\u00a0personal history and from a\u00a0world\u00a0whose landscape now encompasses \u201cthe rise of fascism, the implementation through deportations of the Great Replacement theory, the starvation of devastated populations subjected to war and climate change\u201d, and uses the material she gathers to\u00a0pose a simple question. When faced\u00a0with realities such as these, what\u00a0do you do? Do you stand, or do\u00a0you fall?<\/p>\n

\n
More here<\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sarah Crown in\u00a0The Guardian: \u201cAny resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or\u00a0actual events is purely coincidental,\u201d writes the multi-award winning Jamaican-American poet, essayist and playwright\u00a0Claudia Rankine\u00a0in the disclaimer to her latest work. \u201cUnless it isn\u2019t.\u201d The pretzel-logic of this statement, its assertive ambiguity, sets the tone for a book that\u00a0digs directly into the question…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5918],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-310311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recommended-reading","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310311"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310315,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310311\/revisions\/310315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":310307,"date":"2026-08-26T08:46:37","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T12:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/?p=310307"},"modified":"2026-08-26T08:46:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T12:46:37","slug":"the-baffling-science-of-ssris-how-do-they-really-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/3quarksdaily\/2026\/08\/the-baffling-science-of-ssris-how-do-they-really-work.html","title":{"rendered":"The baffling science of SSRIs: how do they really work?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lynne Peeples in\u00a0Nature:<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"Every year, millions of people start taking a drug with therapeutic effects that can\u2019t be fully explained, for a condition that can\u2019t be objectively diagnosed with a laboratory test. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, are among the most prescribed medications in the world. Yet, even after decades of use, scientists are still untangling the biological changes that SSRIs trigger in the brain and body.\u00a0\u201cWe fundamentally don\u2019t know how they work,\u201d says Maurizio Fava, a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.<\/p>\n

That uncertainty collided with politics earlier this year when,\u00a0speaking at a wellness summit<\/a>\u00a0focused on mental health, US Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr argued that the drugs are greatly overused and have withdrawal risks that are on a par with heroin. His claims prompted an outcry from some scientists and clinicians, who warned that Kennedy had overstated the concern, potentially scaring people away from life-saving treatment. But others said he had identified a real problem, even if clumsily. \u201cThis is a major public-health issue,\u201d says Mark Horowitz, a psychiatrist at Adelaide University in Australia. \u201cI hope the messenger\u2019s controversialness doesn\u2019t kill the message.\u201d<\/p>\n

More here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lynne Peeples in\u00a0Nature: Every year, millions of people start taking a drug with therapeutic effects that can\u2019t be fully explained, for a condition that can\u2019t be objectively diagnosed with a laboratory test. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, are among the most prescribed medications in the world. Yet, even after decades of use, scientists are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5918],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-310307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recommended-reading","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310307"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310310,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310307\/revisions\/310310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":310304,"date":"2026-08-26T08:43:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T12:43:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/?p=310304"},"modified":"2026-08-26T08:43:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T12:43:27","slug":"wednesday-poem-512","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/3quarksdaily\/2026\/08\/wednesday-poem-512.html","title":{"rendered":"Wednesday Poem"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everything That Happens Can Be Called Aging<\/h2>\n

I have more love than ever.<\/span>
\nOur kids have kids soon to have kids.<\/span>
\nI need them. I need everyone<\/span>
\nto come over to the house,<\/span>
\nsleep on the floor, on the couches<\/span>
\nin the front room. I need noise,<\/span>
\ntoo many people in too small a space,<\/span>
\nI need dancing, the spilling of drinks,<\/span>
\nthe loud pronouncements<\/span>
\nover music, the verbal sparring,<\/span>
\nthe broken dishes, the wealth.<\/span>
\nI need it all flying apart.<\/span>
\nMy friends to slam against me,<\/span>
\nto hold me, to say they love me.<\/span>
\nI need mornings to ask for favors<\/span>
\nand forgiveness. I need to give,<\/span>
\nhave all my emotions rattled,<\/span>
\nmy family to be greedy,<\/span>
\nto keep coming, to keep asking<\/span>
\nand taking. I need no resolution,<\/span>
\njust the constant turmoil of living.<\/span>
\nGive me the bottom of the river,<\/span>
\nall the unadorned, unfinished,<\/span>
\nunpraised moments, one good turn<\/span>
\non the luxuriant wheel.<\/span><\/p>\n

by Carl Adamshick<\/a><\/em>
\n1969 \u2013<\/em>
\nFrom <\/em>Saint Friend
\nMcSweeney’s Poetry Series, 2014<\/em><\/p>\n

Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everything That Happens Can Be Called Aging I have more love than ever. Our kids have kids soon to have kids. I need them. I need everyone to come over to the house, sleep on the floor, on the couches in the front room. I need noise, too many people in too small a space,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5918],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-310304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recommended-reading","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310304"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310306,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310304\/revisions\/310306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":309857,"date":"2026-08-26T06:00:57","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T10:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/?p=309857"},"modified":"2026-08-24T01:42:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T05:42:30","slug":"seven-puzzles-of-the-pursuit-of-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/3quarksdaily\/2026\/08\/seven-puzzles-of-the-pursuit-of-happiness.html","title":{"rendered":"Seven Puzzles of the Pursuit of Happiness"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Scott Samuelson<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Walt Whitman<\/a>: \u201cI include & allow & probably teach some things stoicism would frown upon & discard\u2014One\u2019s pulses & marrow are not democratic & natural for nothing.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During our disturbingly subdued celebration of the Declaration of Independence\u2019s two-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary, one of the many things I\u2019ve been thinking about is our natural right to \u201cthe pursuit of happiness.\u201d As I\u2019ve reconsidered the philosophical tradition that the Committee of Five was drawing on when they lit on that memorable phrase, seven great puzzles of happiness have stood out to me, which also emerge time and again in any halfway-thoughtful person\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

PUZZLE #1: WHAT\u2019S IN OUR CONTROL?<\/p>\n

In many languages, the word for happiness can also mean luck. Even in English, \u201chappiness\u201d derives from \u201chap,\u201d which gives us words like \u201chappenstance.\u201d So, maybe happiness isn\u2019t in our control at all. That\u2019s one answer to the puzzle. Happiness is happenstance, sheer luck. Let\u2019s just hope and pray for the best.<\/p>\n

In many ways, the tradition of ancient Greek philosophy emerged to give an alternative answer. We can make an art of being human. We can shape our lives to be open to happiness. Fundamentally, the good life isn\u2019t a matter of luck. It involves habits and virtues that we cultivate in ourselves. It\u2019s more about what we do than what\u2019s done to us.<\/p>\n

Some philosophers\u2014arguably Socrates himself, but certainly the Stoic philosophers he influenced\u2014went so far as to say that happiness is totally in our control. If we cultivate the right mindset and practice the right virtues, we can be happy under all circumstances. Even when we\u2019re wrongly imprisoned and face an unjust execution (to take the tragic example of Socrates\u2014excuse me, I should say comic<\/em> example, since all endings are happy endings for a virtuous person), we can be completely happy if we\u2019re just at peace with our conscience. So, there\u2019s another answer to our first puzzle. With the right moral character, we can be happy no matter what our fate holds.<\/p>\n

Yet other philosophers, most famously Aristotle, argued that while our choices and virtues are the lion\u2019s share of happiness, there\u2019s still a little luck that we need. At minimum, a happy life involves dodging the worst of fates, a fate like that of Priam, who had to endure the rape and murder of his family, the destruction of his homeland, and the genocide of his people\u2014a fate still being suffered in our current world. So, there\u2019s another answer. Happiness is mostly in our control, but we need a little luck\u2014or at least we need to be spared horrible luck.<\/p>\n

Maybe we also need the basic equipment for being happy\u2014for instance, a home and food. If so, that raises interesting political questions for anybody committed to a natural right to the pursuit of happiness.<\/p>\n

PUZZLE #2: SHOULD WE WANT WHAT WE WANT?<\/p>\n

A straightforward approach to happiness says that getting what we want will make us happy. We\u2019ve always dreamt of paradises where all our wishes are granted\u2014ripe fruit falls off the trees, rivers flow with milk and honey, nobody suffers or dies, and little streams of alcohol come trickling down the rocks.<\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t our consumer economy the attempt to make personal paradises readily available? Its advertisements promise us that buying what we want (or increasingly renting services that dole out what we want) will make us happy.<\/p>\n

You may find yourself skeptical of this consumerist vision if you\u2019ve ever been with children on a day when they\u2019re showered with presents and get overstimulated, grumpy, bored, or counterproductively selfish.<\/p>\n

Some philosophies\u2014Buddhism and Stoicism come to mind\u2014go so far as to take the opposite position: desire (or at least a certain species of desire) is the cause of suffering. On this view, we\u2019re better off when we disentangle our happiness from our desires and focus on ego-reducing things like acceptance, compassion, or generosity.<\/p>\n

Yet other philosophies\u2014I\u2019m thinking of Epicureanism\u2014take a more moderate approach and hold that desire is a crucial clue to our happiness even though it can easily get out of hand. On this view, we should scale back our yearnings to the simple desires for healthy food, a cozy home, good work, good play, and good companionship\u2014and weed out all our desires for more, more, more.<\/p>\n

PUZZLE #3: IS MONEY EVER ENOUGH?<\/p>\n

When I was a kid, my pals and I would sometimes quiz each other, \u201cIf you could have three wishes, what would you wish for?\u201d You know the first answer: a thousand more wishes!<\/p>\n

I think that\u2019s basically what the desire for money is: a wish for more wishes. If our consumer economy promises us that buying things will enhance our happiness, the natural thing for us to think is that true success is being rich and being able to buy whatever we want, whenever we want.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that every single tradition of religion and philosophy is adamantly opposed to this view. When we align ourselves with these traditions, our overwhelming emotion for Elon Musk should be pity.<\/p>\n

The extremists of these traditions hold that money is the root of all evil and commit themselves to poverty to escape its clutches. Religious ascetics take vows of poverty, and most ancient philosophers (we sometimes forget) were scruffy, wild-haired, grubby bums\u2014like Diogenes, who was once caught begging money from a statue. When someone asked him why, he replied, \u201cTo get used to being refused.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even thinkers who don\u2019t completely oppose money think that it\u2019s a category mistake to believe that money equals happiness. Though money can help us acquire the equipment of a happy life, wanting money itself, like my wishing for a thousand wishes, is simply to want more, more, more\u2014and thus never to be happy with what you have or even could have. They treat money like most of us treat toothpaste. It\u2019s good to have a tube of it, maybe even a spare tube in the closet, but it would be absurd and a wicked nuisance to desire or to possess a million, a billion, or a trillion tubes of toothpaste.<\/p>\n

When I taught a course called Working in America, one of the questions I\u2019d ask my students is how much annual income they would need to have a great life. After initial dreams of millions or billions, most of them concluded that a great life did need some money but could be fully accomplished without a whole lot. Even things like life-changing travel can be done on a shoestring\u2014in fact, some argued that it\u2019s better accomplished on a shoestring. It brought them up short to realize that their default was to want far more money than they needed to have a great life. Some of them began to wonder if the pursuit of extra money was worth it.<\/p>\n

PUZZLE #4: ARE IDLE HANDS THE WORK OF THE DEVIL OR THE ANGELS?<\/p>\n

Since the invention of the philosophy major, philosophy majors have been asked, \u201cWhat are you going to do with that?\u201d The assumption, which has now become the explicit motto of the university, is that higher education is workforce training. Since there aren\u2019t any philosophy factories with \u201chelp wanted\u201d signs on the door, isn\u2019t studying Plato a waste of time and money?<\/p>\n

Interestingly, philosophy majors discover that the ancient Greeks had the exact opposite view: to be trained in something useful is to make yourself fit for slavery. The point of realizing our humanity, on this view, is to rise above the merely useful. The great good is not labor or work but leisure. True happiness involves sculpting our ability to use free time well, to discipline our attention and then direct it at higher goods like truth and beauty\u2014that is, to be more than just people who do their job and then offload their brains onto the entertainment industry.<\/p>\n

As it turns out, the only thing that these leisure-loving ancient Greeks managed to accomplish was the invention of geometry, astronomy, the theater, history, logic, physics, philosophy, athletics, academia, and democracy.<\/p>\n

But maybe these Greek philosophers are missing out on what\u2019s good about labor and work. Can\u2019t chores teach us humility? Doesn\u2019t work bring out the best in us? Don\u2019t we long to make tangible contributions to our community? And don\u2019t we need a job to keep us occupied and provide us with the money we need to have a good life?<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the blend of chores, work, and leisure that makes us happy? I like to point out that our country was founded by farmers who studied philosophy. So, another way of putting it is: what\u2019s the right mix of farming and philosophy in a good life?<\/p>\n

PUZZLE #5: HOW EQUAL SHOULD WE BE?<\/p>\n

\"\"
Thomas Jefferson<\/a>: \u201cI TOO AM AN EPICUREAN. I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing every thing rational in moral philosophy which Greece and Rome have left us.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What exactly is the equality that Declaration of Independence declares is the birthright of all people? It means not being under the thumb of any person or group. It means being able to look others in the eye, even your boss or your president. It means wielding a meaningful voice in the shaping of your political community: having a vote, being able to speak your mind, maybe running for office\u2014the central goods of a liberal democracy. In a word, it means liberty rather than slavery, freedom rather than serfdom.<\/p>\n

If we go back to those ancient Greeks, we find Aristotle arguing that not all people are created equal, that some people are (in his words) \u201cnatural slaves,\u201d people who are happiest not to make decisions for themselves but rather to be told what to do. Such natural slaves are perfect for doing the jobs necessary for the economy so that others can enjoy their leisure and run the show. If my history is correct, I believe that some of the Founders entertained a similar view.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy\u2014and important\u2014to condemn such vile elitism, but I think that we continually need to confront the challenge of Aristotle\u2019s concept of natural slavery, especially in a time of algorithmic manipulation and political disenfranchisement. Are we still committed to citizenship as a crucial part of our flourishing, or are we okay with offloading liberty onto technological or political overlords? Is it still a self-evident truth that we\u2019re all equal?<\/p>\n

PUZZLE #6: IS OUR TRUE LONGING FOR GOD?<\/p>\n

For the sake of argument, let\u2019s say that we manage to live out good answers to all our previous puzzles. We cultivate and exercise our virtues, manage our desires, have enough but not too much money, strike the right balance of good work and meaningful leisure, and practice a generous form of citizenship\u2014or at least something in that ballpark. Is all that enough to be happy? Or will we still long for something bigger than our fully realized human life?<\/p>\n

In the Confessions<\/em>, Augustine narrates his own search for happiness and finds that pleasure, entertainment, friendship, sex, virtue, and philosophy all fail to deliver. After a breakdown and a mystical vision, he turns himself over to God. As he famously puts it, \u201cYou have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if we aren\u2019t as extreme as Augustine, we still might think that some amount of transcendence is necessary for a happy life. People often find peace and happiness in being united with something bigger than them, something that takes them out of themselves and puts them in touch with the timeless: festivals, dancing, meditation, prayer, art, nature, psychedelics. Such experiences have the potential to humble us in the face of being and to fill us with a more-than-human joy.<\/p>\n

PUZZLE #7: WHAT\u2019S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?<\/p>\n

In my book, the biggest puzzle of all is love. Just think of the central role that love plays in Plato\u2019s dialogues, or Augustine\u2019s distillation of ethics as \u201clove and do what you will,\u201d or Dante\u2019s vision of \u201cthe love that moves the sun and the other stars.\u201d<\/p>\n

I love what the poet Randall Jarrell says about love:<\/p>\n

Love removes none of the contradictions of our lives but, by adding one more, induces us to accept them all; transfigured by it, we had rather be loved than right\u2014are willing, even to be happy. Whether it moves the sun and the other stars we cannot tell, but that it moves the men and women and children and cats and dogs among whom we live we can hardly doubt. The house not built upon it, blessed by it, is founded upon the sand.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s certainly not so simple as that love is the key to happiness, for it\u2019s also responsible for most of our misery, grief, and violence. But here\u2019s my suspicion: a life without loving and being loved, even an otherwise happy life, is missing the key ingredient.<\/p>\n

The mysteries of love are wild and vast\u2014and permeate almost every one of our other puzzles. How much of love is luck? Can we somehow open ourselves to it? What are the virtues of loving and being loved? How helpful are our strong attractions? Should love inform our work, our leisure\u2014both? How do we weave love into everyday life? What do we do with a broken heart?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not claiming these are the only puzzles of happiness, just that these seven big puzzles confront each and every one of us. Though I\u2019ve got my own hunches about all of them, it\u2019s probably healthy to recognize what a gargantuan mystery the pursuit of happiness is, because living with mysteries, even when we\u2019re utterly baffled by them, is better than buying into stupid answers and moving on.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Scott Samuelson is the author of several books<\/a>, most recently To Taste: On Cooking and the Good Life<\/em><\/a>. A version of these remarks was given at the Lyceum Movement\u2019s Tallgrass Festival of Ideas<\/a> in Des Moines, Iowa on August 8th, 2026.<\/p>\n

Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Scott Samuelson During our disturbingly subdued celebration of the Declaration of Independence\u2019s two-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary, one of the many things I\u2019ve been thinking about is our natural right to \u201cthe pursuit of happiness.\u201d As I\u2019ve reconsidered the philosophical tradition that the Committee of Five was drawing on when they lit on that memorable phrase, seven…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1804,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3260],"tags":[18,5664,89,3243,3122,220,717,7237,195,7238,1963,1964,7236,251],"class_list":["post-309857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mondaymagazine","tag-aristotle","tag-augustine","tag-buddhism","tag-desire","tag-equality","tag-leisure","tag-love","tag-natural-slavery","tag-plato","tag-randall-jarrell","tag-socrates","tag-stoicism","tag-the-pursuit-of-happiness","tag-walt-whitman","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1804"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309857"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310156,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309857\/revisions\/310156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":309876,"date":"2026-08-26T05:00:37","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T09:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/?p=309876"},"modified":"2026-08-24T01:36:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T05:36:13","slug":"a-way-to-achieve-cosmic-uniqueness-with-a-deck-of-cards-and-a-few-exponents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/3quarksdaily\/2026\/08\/a-way-to-achieve-cosmic-uniqueness-with-a-deck-of-cards-and-a-few-exponents.html","title":{"rendered":"A Way to Achieve Cosmic Uniqueness with a Deck of Cards and a Few Exponents"},"content":{"rendered":"

by John Allen Paulos<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Here is a very simple notion that is astonishingly powerful. It\u2019s called the multiplication principle and states that if some action can be accomplished in M ways and another action can be accomplished in N ways, then these two actions can be performed in succession in MxN ways. Hence the word \u201cmultiplication.\u201d This can obviously be extended to three or more actions or choices. An example: In how many ways can one choose and order 3 letters from among the letters a,b,c,d,e? There are 5 possibilities for the first choice, 4 for the second and 3 for the third, so the answer is 5 x 4 x 3, which equals 60. Similarly the number of ways of ordering all 5 letters is 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x1, which equals 120.<\/p>\n

For a slightly more interesting example, assume that 10 world leaders at an international conference line up to get the commemorative group picture taken. In how many ways can the leaders be lined up? There are 10 choices for the left-most person in the photo, 9 choices for the next person in line, 8 for the next person in line, 7 for the next, and so on. So the number of possible orderings for the 10 leaders is 10x9x8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1, which equals 3,628,800. A surprisingly large number!\u00a0 (Of course, we assume that all of the orderings are possible, and that there is no narcissistic blowhard who can commandeer the center of the ordering.) A bit of useful notation for the product 10x9x8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1 is 10 factorial, written as 10!<\/p>\n

Now rather than 10 world leaders, consider a deck of 52 cards (no jokers). In how many possible ways are there to order the cards in the deck. Note that there 52 possibilities for the first card in the ordering. After that choice, there remain 51 possible cards for the second card in the ordering, 50 possible choices for the third card in the ordering, 49 possible choices for fourth card, and so on for 48 possible choices, 47 choices, 46 choices until there is only one possible choice for the last card in the ordering.<\/p>\n

Invoking the multiplication principle and factorial notation gives us 52x51x50x49x48 4x3x2x1 or 52! ways to order the 52 cards in a deck. So what does 52! equal? In this case the exclamation point might be taken to have two functions – to express the product succinctly and perhaps to express amazement at how big the number is.<\/p>\n

The number of ways to order the 52 cards in a deck is, as noted, 52!, which is about 8.06×1067<\/sup> or 8 followed by 67 zeroes or, in words, infinitesimally infinitesimal<\/em><\/strong>. There are many ways to induce an appreciation for the size of this number. One is that the probability that any two humans shuffling the cards in a deck would get the same ordering of the cards is 1\/8×1067<\/sup>, which is essentially zero. In fact, any ordering of a thoroughly shuffled deck of cards that you might pick will almost certainly be unique. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Taking this further, let\u2019s assume there have been 100 billion human beings so far and, quite oddly enough, each of them has found the time to shuffle 1,000 decks of cards. The probability oft two of these human-generated orderings resulting in the same ordering is the fraction of the total number of possible orderings constituted by the orderings produced by humans\u2019 shuffles.<\/em><\/strong> That is, (100 billion x 1,000)\/8 x 1067<\/sup><\/em><\/strong>, which equals 102<\/sup> x 109<\/sup> x 103<\/sup>\/ 8 x 1067 <\/sup>which, using the basic laws of exponents, equals 1014<\/sup>\/8 x 1067<\/sup>or approximately 1\/1054<\/sup> (a decimal point followed by 53 zeroes and a 1). Again the probability of two of these 1014<\/sup> humans\u2019 shuffles resulting in the same ordering is essentially zero. Needless to reiterate but factorials get very large very fast. After a while they grow even faster than exponentials.<\/p>\n

Some comparisons of 52! to other big numbers: the number of stars estimated to be in our Milky Way Galaxy is 400 billion or only 4×1011<\/sup>; the estimated number of stars in the observable universe is only 1024<\/sup>; and the number of nanoseconds (a nanosecond is a billionth of a second) in 14 billion years (the age of the universe) is about 4.4x 1026<\/sup>. This means that 4.4x 1026<\/sup>\/8.06×1067<\/sup>, is the minusculely minuscule fraction (once again essentially zero, about 5 x 10 -42<\/sup>) of all possible orderings of a deck of cards that were the result of shuffling a deck every nanosecond since the Big Bang! (Here the ! means Wow, not Bang factorial.) <\/em><\/strong>Just a simple physical action, shuffling a deck of cards, leads you to a number that exceeds almost every physical quantity we can think of. What other simple actions will lead us to comparably huge permutations? Cards or something more or less equivalent to them seem to be a canonical example.<\/p>\n

The multiplication principle leads directly not only to these humongous numbers and permutations but also to combinations to combinatorics generally as well as to a crucial role in probability* and cryptography. A step in that direction might replace a deck of cards with the 26 lower case letters and the 26 upper case letters – aAbBcCdDeE\u2026xXyYzZ. A 52 letter code involving these 52 letters, one of 8 x 1067<\/sup> such codes, should be unbreakable, although with the development of quantum computers, who knows? Maybe goodbye bitcoin? In any case the multiplication principle should be an arrow in every person\u2019s cognitive quiver.<\/p>\n

*Finally. An exercise. Probability also satisfies a multiplication principle for independent events. Specifically the probability of a number of independent events all occurring is the product of their individual probabilities. So what is more likely – rolling a die 4 times and getting all 6\u2019s or flipping a coin 10 times and getting all heads?<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

John Allen Paulos is an emeritus Professor of Mathematics at Temple University and the author of\u00a0<\/em>Innumeracy<\/em>,\u00a0A<\/em> Mathematician<\/em> Reads the Newspaper<\/em>, and Irreligion. These and his other books are\u00a0available here: (<\/em>https:\/\/johnallenpaulos.com\/booksandreviews.html<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by John Allen Paulos Here is a very simple notion that is astonishingly powerful. It\u2019s called the multiplication principle and states that if some action can be accomplished in M ways and another action can be accomplished in N ways, then these two actions can be performed in succession in MxN ways. Hence the word…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":838,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3260],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-309876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mondaymagazine","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/838"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309876"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310036,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309876\/revisions\/310036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":310227,"date":"2026-08-26T04:00:59","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T08:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/?p=310227"},"modified":"2026-08-25T06:22:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T10:22:42","slug":"catspeak-482","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/3quarksdaily\/2026\/08\/catspeak-482.html","title":{"rendered":"Catspeak"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Brooks Riley<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Brooks Riley Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3260],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-310227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mondaymagazine","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310227"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310229,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310227\/revisions\/310229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":310287,"date":"2026-08-25T14:45:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T18:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/?p=310287"},"modified":"2026-08-25T10:18:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T14:18:57","slug":"on-paul-celans-writing-between-languages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/3quarksdaily\/2026\/08\/on-paul-celans-writing-between-languages.html","title":{"rendered":"On Paul Celan\u2019s writing between languages"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lucy Ives at The Poetry Foundation<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\"\"The unsettling images in\u00a0John Ashbery<\/a>\u2019s\u00a0The Tennis Court Oath<\/i>\u00a0(1962) were collaged from lines found in a children\u2019s book. I\u2019ve often privately repeated phrases like \u201chis Swedish copper forehead\u201d or \u201cthe lake a lilac cube.\u201d This language is hermetic and synesthetic. Beautiful and puzzling, it evokes impossible\u2014or barely possible\u2014forms of aesthetic experience, what is sometimes termed the surreal.<\/p>\n

I mention Ashbery\u2019s second book (for me, his best), as a way of suggesting, via analogy, what I cherish about a different poet. Ashbery\u2019s weird pictures hint at some of the reverberating visual, spatial, and sonic effects of the poetry of\u00a0Paul Celan<\/a>, whose work is, at least on the surface, primarily fashioned from German. Celan\u2019s writing constitutes an utter re-shaping of that language, equivalent, in its originality, to the invention of a fictional idiom, such as the alphabet of Thomas More\u2019s\u00a0Utopia<\/i>\u00a0(1516). But to say that Celan invented a sham German is wrong. Celan\u2019s operations are neither positivist nor completist; they are instead a form of tuning.<\/p>\n

More here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lucy Ives at The Poetry Foundation: The unsettling images in\u00a0John Ashbery\u2019s\u00a0The Tennis Court Oath\u00a0(1962) were collaged from lines found in a children\u2019s book. I\u2019ve often privately repeated phrases like \u201chis Swedish copper forehead\u201d or \u201cthe lake a lilac cube.\u201d This language is hermetic and synesthetic. Beautiful and puzzling, it evokes impossible\u2014or barely possible\u2014forms of aesthetic…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5918],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-310287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recommended-reading","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310287"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310290,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310287\/revisions\/310290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":310299,"date":"2026-08-25T14:32:50","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T18:32:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/?p=310299"},"modified":"2026-08-25T12:33:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T16:33:23","slug":"determined-life-without-free-will-with-robert-sapolsky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/3quarksdaily\/2026\/08\/determined-life-without-free-will-with-robert-sapolsky.html","title":{"rendered":"Determined: Life without Free Will with Robert Sapolsky"},"content":{"rendered":"