Tristram Hunt says his success is down to hard work, and then goes on to describe his upbringing.

Ahem. Yes, I quite agree that it is totally infuriating to read the far too many diatribes by people who think that everybody can 'hard work' their way out of desperate situations.

But, on the other prickly paw, there are people who had the kinds of ( Read more... )

Further thoughts loosely connected with the 'intrinsic'/'extrinsic' post yesterday, and stuff coming up all over the reading list.

That even people who are doing things as ends in themselves, because they're an intrinsic form of satisfaction (rather than accruing social approval or external rewards) are going to have times when these things give ( Read more... )

I've been mulling over this extract from the Winston article on religion and evolution that I posted the other day:
A Harvard psychologist named Gordon Allport... came up with a definition of religiosity that is still in use today. He suggested that there were two types of religious commitment - extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic religiosity he ( Read more... )