I like Tufte's ethical economics, right in the beginning of the book:
"Making an evidence presentation is a moral act as well as an
intellectual activity. To maintain standards of quality, relevance
and integrity for evidence, consumers of presentations should
insist that presenters be held intellectually and ethically
responsible for what they show and tell. Thus /consuming/ a
presentation is also an intellectual and a moral activity."
This was in the economic context of "producer and consumer" of evidence.
Speaking of him, I'm curious whether Christopher Alexander's _Nature of Order_ is worth reading... http://books.google.com/books?id=rVv9ylH5YHUC&pg=PP10&sig=Kx6Nh7pxTdaD79o1DckTh0dnOoI
> I just picked up and am anxious to start The Social Life of
> Information, by John Seely Brown (who signed this library copy!) and
> Paul Duguid
In-ter-esting...
Some books I've been looking at recently:
* The Professional Chef * Larousse Gastronomique * Hotel Management and Operations, Rutherford * Remembering Tomorrow - Albert * Coercion, Capital and European States, A.D.990-1990 - Tilly
Yeah, want to finally read the whole thing beyond what's available
from Google Books.
* What Is Mathematics, Really? - Hersh
In contrast to the platonist/formalist/intuitionist philsophical
views, this guy argues for the humanist view. An amazon reviewer
heatedly called it a "Political Manifesto of the radical
socialistic, liberal, 'modern' teacher's misconception of what it
means to teach." Cool!
* 18 Unconventional Essays on the Nature of Mathematics
'The authors are philosophers, mathematicians, a cognitive
scientist, an anthropologist, a computer scientist, and a couple
of sociologists. (Among the mathematicians are two Fields Prize
winners and two Steele Prize winners.) None are historians, I
regret to say, but there are two historically oriented articles.
These essays don't share any common program or ideology. The
standard for admission was:
'Nothing boring! Nothing trite, nothing trivial!
'Every essay is challenging, thought-provoking, and original.'
* The Mathematical Experience - Davis, Hersh * Apocalypse Array - Morehouse
I want to believe that I'll one day find a cyberpunk book I'll
enjoy. Trying my luck with this...
* Pattern Recognition - Theodoridis, Koutroumbas
People I work with are using this for a fairly ethically
questionable application.
* Guns, Germs and Steel - Diamond
I like Harry Potter, yet I'm suspicious of this book because of
the "hype"... Go figure.
Tayssir