Resilience versus efficiency
In the neoliberal climate that has reigned the past two decades, better efficiency was the ultimate goal of economic policy. So important that it could hardly be challenged. Competing concepts like avoiding a climate crisis fought an uphill battle against it. But the Covid-19 crisis is turning the world upside down. Wouldn’t we have suffered
Nature as a guiding principle
The Waltzing with Nature manifesto is a logical sequel to the recent books by the authors, Alle Bruggink and Diederik van der Hoeven. Particularly to their latest book Naturally! Of course. How nature keeps surprising us (in Dutch). A surprising book that I reviewed extensively and positively. In April, the authors sent me the draft
Consequences of the Novacene
In the 100th year of his life, James Lovelock wrote an important book: Novacene, The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence. A book that astonishes by the broad view of the author. And that calls for dissent through its consequent logic. A book review drenched in respect and horror. Of course, James Lovelock is the man of
Let’s have a better look at job quality, says Dutch WRR
The report The better job (in Dutch) by the Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) is ground-breaking. For the first time in forty (!) years, there is attention for job quality in Dutch politics. A subject that had been reduced to the point of oblivion by economic crises and neoliberal policies. Jobs, jobs, jobs
Nature as our teacher!
Reading the book Naturally! Of course. How nature always keeps surprising us (in Dutch) by Alle Bruggink and Diederik van der Hoeven was a great pleasure to me. Even stronger, I studied it with great interest. Almost all subjects have my active interest, and they have done so for years already. A personally coloured book
High hopes for holism
Reductionism, reducing issues to little fragments, is at the basis of our present wealth. It also has a major influence on our social behaviour and our worldview. This may take us quite a distance, but we may also lose the view on the bigger picture. Therefore, high hopes for holism. This is a shortened passage
Reductionism and holism in the life sciences
Science rests on reductionism: the reduction of complex issues to digestible bits. From there, researchers try to piece together the bigger picture. But in the life sciences we now see a movement towards holism: the concept that life’s manifestations can only be understood from the whole. How can we reconcile both concepts? This is a
There is no such thing as an individual
Modern biologists are waging a fierce debate on the meaning of the concept of the individual. Definitions of well-known phenomena like symbiosis and parasitism need to be rephrased. The debate goes beyond the world of plants and micro-organisms; the subject of the discussion includes mammals and therefore also mankind. We know for a long time
on: 26 November 2020