Last weekend, I walked up to the first stand in the self-checkout area of store nearby, and found that the screen displayed not a menu but a console window showing the output of a startup sequence:
I happened to pull Ethical Studies by F.H. Bradley from the shelves today. A few pages in, I noticed
It is not so easy to say what the people mean by their ordinary words, for this reason, that the question is not answered until it is asked; that asking is reflection, and that we reflect in general not to find the facts, but to prove our theories at the expense of them.
Are we then necessarily asking leading questions? I suppose that reflection must require a high degree of scrupulousness to avoid that.
In reading Innocence and Experience by Stuart Hampshire, I noticed this passage early on:
I have difficulty in imagining that purity of intention and undivided purposes can be the normal case in politics. I believe that very many people feel divided between openness and concealment, between innocence and experience; and, outside politics, they often find themselves divided between love and hatred of their own homes and of their own habits. The evidence for this belief of mine comes rather from fiction than from moral philosophy, which always presents a tidier picture in the interest of some prevailing epistemology.
Of course, Innocence and Experience is precisely a work of moral philosophy. It does aim to acknowledge the breadth of the available evidence.
Shortly before we all went home for the pandemic, I noticed that the Australian Embassy had rented space in the National Geographic Society building at the corner of M and 17th Streets NW. I had already seen the demolition, or the beginnings of demolition of the old embassy building at Scott Circle, a couple of blocks away. After that, it was a while before I was downtown much.
I did see work going on the new building, but observed it with half an eye. Then, a month or so ago, I noticed backups on Massachusetts Avenue, as construction equipment was loaded onto trucks for removal. I supposed that the construction was mostly done. The other week, I saw the flag in front of the building, and understood that it was completed.
The new building is modernist, as the old one had been, but modernist of the 2020s rather than the 1960s. No doubt it is more efficient in its heating, cooling, and lighting. It will not require soon require draping with heavy fabric to prevent bits from falling on pedestrians, as the old one did for a while.
Meanwhile, the National Geographic building is now closed for renovations, which should be completed by 2026. It seems to be only partially closed, for I saw persons with building badges leaving it the other day. It could be that only the public areas, not the offices, will be renovated.
