Global Weirding in Plato’s Cave

Global Weirding in Plato’s Cave Mario Veen Originally published on Substack, 4 March 2025. In 2021, I interviewed Professor of Theoretical Astronomy Vincent Icke about physics for my podcast Life From Plato’s Cave. He said something that got me thinking. I started a question saying that quantum physics is weird. He replied, “Yes, but not…

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Earthucation

Earthucation: Using Interdisciplinary Philosophy, Education, and Science Communication to Understand the Climate Crisis Mario Veen Originally published on Future Based, 30 January 2023. We live at a peculiar time, not just in human history, but in the history of Earth. Humans now play a large role in determining their future and part of the future…

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How to grow a professional identity: Professional gardening

How to Grow a Professional Identity: Philosophical Gardening in the Field of Medical Education Mario Veen and Anne de la Croix Originally published in Perspectives on Medical Education 12(1), 12–19 (2023), under a CC BY 4.0 licence. DOI: 10.5334/pme.367 Abstract In this philosophical reflection, we – following the philosopher Heidegger – introduce two farmers who…

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Knowledge, Skills and Beetles

Knowledge, Skills and Beetles: Respecting the Privacy of Private Experiences in Medical Education Mario Veen, John Skelton and Anne de la Croix Originally published in Perspectives on Medical Education 9(2), 111–116 (2020), under a CC BY 4.0 licence. DOI: 10.1007/s40037-020-00565-5 Abstract In medical education, we assess knowledge, skills, and a third category usually called values…

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The Reflective Zombie

The Reflective Zombie: Problematizing the Conceptual Framework of Reflection in Medical Education Anne de la Croix and Mario Veen Originally published in Perspectives on Medical Education 7(6), 394–400 (2018), under a CC BY 4.0 licence. DOI: 10.1007/s40037-018-0479-9 Abstract Reflection is an ambiguous and profoundly complex human activity. We celebrate the developments in teaching and researching…

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What is a Metaphysical Experience?

What is a Metaphysical Experience? Commitment and Contemporaneity in Cultural Analysis Mario Veen Originally written in 2005 as a Master’s thesis. Lightly edited to correct typographical errors and garbled characters; otherwise unrevised. It seems to me that almost all our sadnesses are moments of tension, which we feel as paralysis because we no longer hear…

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Intelligent Artificiality: Intermediality and humanization

Provide Freedom. That’s the principal objective of the NS-5. […] With the NS-5 at your side 24/7 you’ll have more free time for hobbies, recreation, friends, and most important family. […] The NS-5 is not another household application; it is a member of the family. […] Its ability to maneuver any type of terrain (from sand to concrete), lift weights of up to 800 pounds, and even bake a tuna casserole, put its capabilities far beyond those of current robot technology. […]

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Leather-Bound Edition: How to become a word

Leather-Bound Edition How To Become a Word Mario Veen Originally written in 2004. Introduction Imagine a painter, a biologist, a linguist, and an economist together in the same room, invited to gather around a rose and make it into an object of study. The painter would probably start mixing his paint until, to his astonishment,…

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