Yvonne and I went to Vita's school this morning for the prize giving. VVVC got a commendation. So many different activities to celebrate in the school with the focus on achievement all round - not just the children who excel at academia or sport.

The Press notice we did for the local paper about the forthcoming interview between Nelson Mandela and Michael Parkinson got into today's edition even though we were up against the deadline. Mary Howard managed to improve on my "angle" so that the piece flows through properly.

. The celebrity names and the media event has to be the headline - thats just the way things are. This leads on to Guildford Lynne and Grace's visit and their message about the severity of the situation. Then something about the response from Guildford and finally there is a mention of the Plundafonix CD.

. SO - remember its BBC1 next Thursday at 10.35pm when the interview is being screened as part of the lead up to Sports Relief hopefully with film of the township HIV and AIDS projects that Lynne and Grace work on in Johannesburg.

On Monday night Tricia Sibbons, Peter and I are getting together to review where we have got to with the new website. I think this could get quite hectic. The trip to the Hague suddenly doesnt look quite such a brilliant idea!

Peter Trejo has written a really good simple summary of Hegel's Phenomenonology of Mind - at http://eserver.org/philosophy/hegel-summary.html.

. Some of this was new to me especially the higher levels of the hierarchy that spirit moves through. From the artistic expression of truth through symbols to the ability to express these truths more directly through literature and then the ability to express the most fundamental truths with precision and clarity. At an even higher level these truths are communicated in ways in which everyone in society can understand.

Maybe its because I am getting old but I seem to be drawn to go back and review some of the really big ideas that I have come across over the years. One theme is how ideas find expression in society and how this relates to action and practice. I found someone that I could only vaguely remember - I knew his name began with a Z and that he had some original ideas about the origins of science. The name is Zilsel - born in Vienna around 1890. Here's a piece which I found about him and sent to Steve who is working on some of this stuff at Cranfield:

"Central to Zilsel's argument on the origin of science is that with the progress of mechanical technology and the social reordering brought about by early capitalism, the social barriers separating carriers of rational modes of thought from carriers of causal and experimental thinking were eroded. Early modern capitalism enhanced competition and hence put a premium on technological innovation. The hybridizations of brain and hands skills is ultimately due to rise in the status of technology. The social roots of science are to be found in the social turbulence of early capitalism. Since capitalism is a uniquely European invention the uniqueness of science follows as a matter of course. The emergence of science follows as a matter of course if craft-experimentation - the aim of which is to find out of a new configurations of interlocking artefacts produces a sustainable result - automatically evolves into scientific experimentation - the aim of which is to test an explanatory principle of to verify a theory. The problem is how does one get from knowing-how to knowing-that, or to put it differently why would a partical endeavour which is only interested in pragmatic results transform itself into an activity which is interested in the epistemological status of the claims one makes. The social mechanism on which Zilsel is relying does not provide any resources to answer this question that suggest this theory is fundamentally flawed. I suggest that Christianity is the missing link. In particular I argue that the Zilsel thesis needs a subtle re-interpretation: science emerges when two different theories of learning -the artisan tradition of learning by doing, of learning through acquisition of skills, and the scholarly tradition of learning by grasping the underlying theoretical principles- become reciprocally dependent upon each other. On this view scinece is a unique Western endeavor because the scholarly tradition of learning utilizes cultural resources which are specific to the Latin Christian world, viz., that an individual human being is endowed with the divide attribute of reason and that nature is rational and lawfully ordered and hence an intelligible entity."

This particular variant of Zilsel's thesis will drive the people at Edinburgh mad - because of the power it ascribes to ideas in themselves. They take the view that ideas are always embedded in social movements with a social rationale in terms of social interests. .

. But the main point Zilsel point is that the critical event in the development of science was an institutional coming together of groups of people expert in know-how and know-that. This is what Plan A is all about - grafting on some more know-how to people who have been in a lot of know-that.

As I turned out my various bookcases in my office I came across a book by Mary Douglas - How Institutions Think - what a marvellous title! For example institutions tend to take a longer view than individuals. There was always concern that in a nuclear emergency key personnel would switch out institutional thought patterns and go back to personal ones - abandon their posts for the family. More of this another day.

Another thinker I tracked down was Gerd Buchdahl - its no exageration that he got me through my finals with his book Metaphysics and the Foundation of Modern Science. He died last year - an amazing life from Berlin to the UK in the 30s then being shipped to Australia as an alien. Then landing up in Cambridge and being part of the revolution in thinking about 17th century science that went on about 30 years ago.

. I bought a CD by Marie McAuliffe's Arksextet. I hadn't heard of them but I was attracted to it by the title - M A plays the music of Burt Bacharach and its place in Tower Records ie not in the MOR section. After I bought the CD I found that she thanked J Zorn on the inside slieve. The band is sax trumpet trombone piano bass and drums and the record was recorded in two days in NYC in 1997. Yes they can all play pretty good. I have another jazz Bacharach album - a Blue Note compilation. This one seems to be a lot better as it uses musical devices from the end of the 60s rather than those from the beginning of the dcade. In fact MA could have easily claimed that the pieces were her compositions inspired by BB - you have to listen quite hard before you can identify some of the tracks, But its well recorded, extremely well played and contains hot arrangements and great blowing as well. Excellent value for �4.99 even though its only 44 minutes long. I am especially gald to get a version of "Are You There With Another Girl".

The other record I picked comes from the end of the 60s and also relates to advances in music in that decade not least in NYC. This one contains thanks to Tony Conrad, Henry Flint, Lamont Young and Marian Zazeela - what you might call the usual suspects. Its from the late 60s archive of Angus Maclise - more on this another day. I have signed up to the Mela Foundation.