Descartes

“Through this philosophy we could know the power and action of fire, water, air, the stars, the heavens and all the other bodies in our environment, as distinctly as we know the various crafts of our artisans; and we could use this knowledge - as the artisans use theirs - for all the purposes for which it is appropriate, and thus make ourselves, as it were, the lords and masters of nature.”

-- René Descartes

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An Artist of Reason

“If we take the ancient Greek philosophers - such as Epicurus, Zeno, Socrates - we discover that the principal object of their science has been the destination of man, and the means to achieve it. They thus remained much more faithful to the true Idea of the philosopher than has been the case in modern times, when we encounter the philosopher only as an artist of reason.”

-- Kant

Syria Update

Engineers working for the Assad regime in Syria have begun combining the two chemical precursors needed to weaponize sarin gas, an American official with knowledge of the situation tells Danger Room. International observers are now more worried than they’ve even been that the Damascus government could use its nerve agent stockpile to slaughter its own people.

-- By Noah Shachtman and Spencer Ackerman at Wired.com


Assad faces an impossible dilemma. From his point of view, the only rationale for using these weapons would be if his downfall would otherwise be absolutely inevitable. On the other hand, if he did choose to gas his enemies, that would be certain to trigger a US-led intervention that would seal his fate anyway. So rationality dictates that he should not use these weapons under any circumstances.

But even if Assad is a still a rational actor, is he fully in control? And does there come a point in the inexorable collapse of a dictatorship when rationality itself goes out of the window and the bunker syndrome takes over?

-- David Blair at The Telegraph


[T]he U.S. and Israel are also using the media to tell Bashar that they will not wait for the use of chemical weapons, but will take action if intelligence indicates that their use is imminent. It is not hard to imagine a scenario where U.S. intelligence assets (drones, satellites, human) begin to witness the preparations for the launch of Syrian Scuds. If the threat is deemed credible, one can imagine a U.S. air strike on the missiles while they are being fueled and still on the ground.

-- Aaron Stein