1)  Books.  Jonathan Littell's important book deserves study. A review of it is in the Reviews section (More . .).  To understand in depth what happened is the best way to find a realistic view of the situation in the world and our prospects for the future. These are dim, indeed - unless we as a race can find better ways to deal with our weaknesses.  Can we do this?  Yes, I am certain of it! After all, we have learned a lot in other ways - and it is an extremely important issue.

2)  Changes - additions. 

     Essay #1,  What is Truth?   Interesting critiques were received. We cannot ignore the need to separate faith from secular issues - in the interest of both sides - because it affects our understanding of Truth.  A "Discussion" about this has been added to the essay. (Truth . .)
    
     Essays  #3, Meeting People,  (Meeting People).,  and #11a,  Great Persons in History, (Great Persons), both  have been substantially augmented. In particular I like to point to the more detailed treatment of intelligence and the estimates with the I.Q., that you find in essay #3.

     Essay #6;  in close connection to my old seminar are the comments that I made at my retirement ceremony: (Retirement).
                     My professional experience (status of 1991) is sketched in this: (Biography).

     Essays #11:  A short explanatory article has been added to the problem of global population growth
                     and its effects on the civilization of the highly developed countries such as the United States (more).

     Essay # 15, a Philosophical Epilogue, has been added. It was to summarize the main ideas covered in the essays. As it grew, I realized that it is now an introduction to philosophy in the way I experienced it myself.  (Epilogue).

    The article Election 2008 has been removed.  Parts of continuing importance are now in
                    "Political Candidates and their Qualifications" and can be accessed HERE .

 3) Important current Controverses:

    Concerning the Situation in Cosmology (essay #8) an Open Letter citing reasons to doubt the Big Bang theory is on Letter .

    The  Global Warming issue: A letter by 100 scientists to the Secretary General of the UN: (. . letter . .), and another is (. here.), and much data with references (here). Of course, eventually nature will reveal the truth, but in the meantime, an objective opinion is not easy to gain unless one can deflate the flood of confusing information and use  plain common sense. Usually the most telling facts in such cases are the attempts to silence critics.  In the meantime, as I just found out, the last two references seem to havc been suppressed by someone.  Therefore, I give another source for interesting information, see here.

 4) Note:  I continue to find stupid spelling errors and typos in my essays. I apologize.

Copyright © 2008  Gernot M. R. Winkler,               Last Correction  11-14-2009