Marginalia

Yang and Chen explain the design of compact, low-power systems inspired by the brain.

The book introduces learning algorithms for spiking neural networks.

Its approaches include multi-compartment models and methods grounded in information theory.

Architecture design connects these learning methods to scalable neuromorphic computation.

Large digital systems and application examples show how the ideas can be implemented.

Series: AI Books · Book deep dive

Neuromorphic Intelligence: Learning, Architectures and Large-Scale Systems — Shuangming Yang and Badong Chen

Publication source

Explore: AI & Computer Science

Related episodes: V-JEPA: Learning Visual Representations from Video (Adrien Bardes, Yann LeCun et al.) · Building Machines That Learn and Think Like People (Brenden Lake et al.)

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Daniel Wegner investigates the feeling that we consciously cause our actions.

He argues that this experience of willing is itself produced by psychological and neural processes.

Cases of mistaken authorship help distinguish the feeling of control from what causes behavior.

The book examines why conscious will can feel convincing even when that feeling misleads us.

Wegner also considers its role in self-understanding, responsibility, and morality.

Series: Mind & Psychology

The Illusion of Conscious Will — Daniel M. Wegner

Publication source

Explore: Mind & Psychology · Philosophy & Critical Theory

Related episodes: Evolutionary Psychology and Development (Palacios et al.) · Human Nature (D. W. Winnicott)

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Eichmann vs. Arendt - Against the Banality of Evil

Explore: Philosophy & Critical Theory · History & Judaism

Related episodes: Spinoza's Ethics (Steven Nadler) · The Concept of God After Auschwitz: A Jewish Voice (Hans Jonas)

Series: Philosophy & Critical Theory

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Celeste Marcus revisits the life and work of the Jewish expressionist painter Chaim Soutine.

Chaim Soutine: Genius, Obsession, and a Dramatic Life in Art follows his path from eastern Europe to Paris.

The biography examines stories that have shaped the reception of his paintings.

Marcus questions the myths surrounding the artist and his work.

The book invites a reconsideration of how an artist’s reputation can influence what viewers see in the paintings.

Series: Art & Music

Chaim Soutine: Genius, Obsession, and a Dramatic Life in Art — Celeste Marcus

Publication source

Explore: Art & Music

Related episodes: Rembrandt's Eyes (Simon Schama) · Rembrandt's Jews (Steven Nadler)

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Historiography - Mandelbaum, Burke, Skinner, Geertz

Explore: History & Judaism · Philosophy & Critical Theory

Related episodes: Memory, History, Forgetting (Paul Ricoeur): Memory and Historical Truth · Cambridge History of Judaism - Topics: Jews of Lithuania

Series: History & Judaism

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Paul Ricoeur examines how remembering and forgetting shape our relationship with the past.

The first part investigates memory and the experience of recalling what is no longer present.

The second considers historical knowledge and the truth claims of historical writing.

The final part explores forgetting as both a loss and a condition of remembering.

The book asks how these processes influence historical experience and collective remembrance.

Series: Philosophy & Critical Theory

Memory, History, Forgetting — Paul Ricoeur

Publication source

Explore: Philosophy & Critical Theory · History & Judaism · Mind & Psychology

Related episodes: Time and Narrative (Paul Ricoeur): How Stories Shape Time · Historiography (Mandelbaum, Burke, Skinner, Geertz)

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Edward Said examines the tensions that distinguish the late work of writers and composers.

He considers how approaching death can enter an artist’s choices and forms of expression.

Examples from literature and music reveal unresolved conflicts rather than a single pattern of maturity.

These works can resist the expectations and prevailing tastes of their time.

The book connects artistic lateness with contradiction, difficulty, and the persistence of creative work.

Series: Art & Music

On Late Style: Music and Literature Against the Grain — Edward W. Said

Publication source

Explore: Art & Music · Philosophy & Critical Theory

Related episodes: Music and the Ineffable (Vladimir Jankélévitch) · The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World (R. Murray Schafer)

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Paul Ricoeur explores how stories connect the time we measure with the time we experience.

Time and Narrative brings Augustine’s reflections on time into conversation with Aristotle’s account of plot.

Historical writing and fiction offer different ways of making events intelligible.

The discussion follows how narrative organizes experience and how readers interpret it.

Use these ideas to consider how the stories we tell shape our understanding of a life and its history.

Series: Philosophy & Critical Theory

Time and Narrative — Paul Ricoeur

Source 1 · Source 2 · Source 3

Explore: Philosophy & Critical Theory · History & Judaism · Art & Music

Related episodes: Memory, History, Forgetting (Paul Ricoeur): Memory and Historical Truth · Eichmann vs. Arendt - Against the Banality of Evil

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Vladimir Jankélévitch asks how music can express meaning without translating into definite statements.

He examines the relationship between musical experience, feeling, and philosophical interpretation.

Music’s effects on listeners exceed what a fixed verbal explanation can capture.

Its temporal movement and ambiguity allow different forms of resonance and response.

The book considers how to think about music while respecting what remains ineffable.

Series: Art & Music

Music and the Ineffable — Vladimir Jankélévitch

Publication source

Explore: Art & Music · Philosophy & Critical Theory

Related episodes: On Late Style: Music and Literature Against the Grain (Edward Said) · The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World (R. Murray Schafer)

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Simon Schama reconstructs Rembrandt’s life through close attention to his pictures.

The book connects artistic choices with the people, institutions, and pressures around him.

Portraits and other works become evidence for understanding the painter’s ambitions and experience.

Schama situates Rembrandt within the cultural world of the seventeenth-century Netherlands.

The biography asks what looking carefully at the art can reveal about its maker.

Series: Art & Music

Rembrandt's Eyes — Simon Schama

Publication source

Explore: Art & Music

Related episodes: Chaim Soutine: Genius, Obsession, and a Dramatic Life in Art (Celeste Marcus) · Rembrandt's Jews (Steven Nadler)

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