Saturday, March 19, 2011

Listening ideas for 19 March 2011

Witness
Isherwood in Berlin
The English author Christopher Isherwood lived in Berlin throughout the 1930s - his vision of the city has become inextricably linked with the German capital.
(review, feed)

New Books In History
Giancarlo Casale, “The Ottoman Age of Exploration”
Like their “European” counterparts, the Ottoman explorers were pursuing two interests: spices and salvation. The former were found (largely) in Southern Asia and the latter was of course in Mecca. To ensure access to both, the Ottomans built–nearly from scratch–an large, ocean-going navy and set out to dominate the Indian Ocean. And they almost did it, though they faced fierce competition from the Portuguese, Safavids, and Mughals. Read all about it in Casale’s terrific book.
(review, feed)

The Economist
Disaster in Japan
After a devastating earthquake and tsunami, our Tokyo correspondent describes Japan's response to a crisis on many fronts
(review, feed)

Argos
De dood van een zwangere asielzoekster
Een zwangere Somalische asielzoekster overleed vorig jaar zomer in het asielzoekerscentrum in Leersum. De Inspectie voor de Gezondheidszorg (IGZ) deed onderzoek en ook het Openbaar Ministerie rondt momenteel een onderzoek af naar de omstandigheden rond de dood van de vrouw. Volgende week spreekt de Tweede Kamer over de bevindingen van de IGZ. De medische opvang voor asielzoekers is 2 jaar geleden ingrijpend veranderd. Zijn die veranderingen mede debet aan het overlijden van de vrouw? In Argos reageren twee oud-inspecteurs IGZ, een kamerlid en Marja Dijkstra van het Gezondheidscentrum voor Asielzoekers.
(review, feed)

Michel Montaigne

I knew the name Montaigne before I knew the person. There was a Montaigne school in Amsterdam, but I had no idea who Montaigne was. Michel Montaigne was a French writer from the 16th century who wrote philosophical essays about just anything that popped to his mind. Some of this I learned bit by bit, but a very fine summary I got from a recent issue of Philosophy Bites.


Sarah Blakewell was on the show to tell us about this writer and made me appreciate him a whole lot more. It turns out, Montaigne is more or less the inventor of the essay and with his essays he influences many thinkers of later age, from Descartes to Nietzsche. And it also seems he is very readable. It think I am off to the library to get a copy of his works. (feed)

More Philosophy Bites:
Justice according to Michael Sandel,
Three issues of Philosophy Bites,
Morality,
The genocide and the trial.
Dirty Hands,