Andrew Basden's Web Sites
Welcome to my web pages. This page tells you a bit about me, and links to quite a network of websites about various topics.
People sometimes say I have useful ways of looking at things, maybe because of Asperger Syndome and deep commitment to Jesus Christ or a rather unusual kind.
Enjoy!
Academic Work
For my paid work, I was a Professor of Human Factors and Philosophy in Information Systems at the
Salford Business School, at the University of Salford.
Now retired (Emeritus) but still active in academic thinking but also action of various kinds.
Academic interests, many:
- Information / digital systems: across most areas of computer science, information systems, AI, games, human-computer interaction, benefits and harm of digital systems, societal impact. See Publications.
- The nature of research: across all fields. See Foundations and Practice of Research.
- Sustainability: multi-aspectual understanding of sustainability and our climate and environmental responsibility, especially linked with economics. See Climate Change and Global Economy.
- Economics: Leading a Reith Lectures Discussion Group in a deep Reformation of Economics.
- Philosophy: Not so much a philosopher as an applied philosopher. Applying, explaining and enriching the pluralistic philosophy of meaning by Herman Dooyeweerd, who is "arguably the best philosopher of everyday life to emerge so far". Most of my publications since 2000 have been on applying Dooyeweerd. Convenor of the major resource, The Dooyeweerd Pages, a sizeable network of pages whose aim to promote discussion, understanding and refinement Dooyeweerd's philosophy; highly interlinked.
- Theology: See A New View in Theology and Practice and Christian thinking.
See Also:
Spiritual matters
I'm one of the 2 billion people called 'Christians' - those
who, at least in theory, model their lives and everything else
on Jesus Christ. What brand? I'm what might be called
evangelical, rather than liberal, fundamentalist or anglo-catholic, in outlook. Click here for the main Index to this part of the site, of which the following is a selection:
Some Main pages:
Did you know? In 1996 Christianity became a non-Western religion; since on that date the (estimated) number of Christians in the non-Western part of the world exceeded those in the Western. That puts me in the minority!
Family
My wife, Ruth, two sons, Alastair and Stuart compose my 'family' - with about five Amiga computers and various recent devices, and much other clutter. Vehicle technology jumped from old Morris Traveller to direct to new Nissan LEAF electric car!
Quite enjoy computer games, hillwalking, birding.
And I too hold Tolkien's Lord of the Rings to be the Book of the (20th) Century, as found by polls by Waterstones (25,000 people), the Folio Society (10,000) and The Daily Telegraph in the U.K.
In May 2002 I was diagnosed as having that common complaint among academics and computer people: Apserger's Syndrome.
Since the early 1970s I've been interested in Green and environmental
issues. Jesus Christ emphasized that our actions and lives should
match our words, so I am also an activist in Green matters (taking part in XR and JSO protests). Involved over the years in Green Politics in a number of areas:
I'm also involved in the
North Cheshire Rail Users' Group and a member of the Manchester Pedestrians Club.
It's all so easy to condemn us greens for being hypocritical just because we have to make use of some of the things of modern, technical life - and then to despise those who try to minimise their links with modern life as crazy unrealistic hippies. In doing this are you not yourself guilty of hypocrisy?
Web pages express knowledge. Just as the pieces of our knowledge are intertwined with many others, so can web pages be, and it is this easy interlinking that makes the World Wide Web a better medium for knowledge than all the others except the human mind itself. So, in this site I have focused on interlinking rather than on some other more visual facilities that the Web might offer.
My page policy is to provide useful information and discussion, richly linked both within itself as a network (not just an hierarchy) and to other pieces of knowledge worldwide so that knowledge may be shared. No cookies. Not much surplus graphics, which used to eat up phone bills and memory. Minimal use of fancy constructs - CSS-free, Frame-free and Java-free, and Tables mainly used for real tables.
Like Eric Schwartz'
site, my pages are not 'enhanced for IE/Netscape' - 'cos I use AWeb.
This site is designed to suitable for any browser.
My pages are created on the Amiga, and so probably look best thereon.
However, since text and pictures can never fully or properly express the author's real meaning and purpose, you are advised to treat what I have written with some care. Many of my pages express 'knowledge in progress' rather than fully-fledged, completed edifices. Therefore, just as knowledge (both mine and that of the whole world) is developing, and becoming expressed more fully, so most of my web pages are dynamic in their structure and more or less tentative in their content. Unless otherwise stated, you should not take what is written as expressing perfectly what I meant or intended.
Disclaimer: In particular, you should not take what I have written in a legal manner. e.g. if anyone quotes what I have written as evidence against something that I hold dear, or to destroy something I believe, then I reserve the right to deny that the quotation is a true reflection of what I truly meant.
Bye.
I'd be delighted to hear from you (as long as you're not a junk mailer!). .
See also
Page revamped 2 September 1997, updated 19 September 1997, 17 October 1997, 30 August 1998. 20 September 1998 added how to read. 29 September 1998 re-did Green section. 4 November 1998 papers. 24 December 1998 Amiga reference now points to /amiga/ not /Amiga/ (what a pain unix is!! Amiga is much better!!) 27 December 1998 a couple of dead links made OK. 10 January 1999 added link to spiritual history. 31 January 1999 renamed link to 'spiritual journey'. 8 February 1999 major revamp to structure of page, describing site structure etc. 21 March 1999 extra link. 28 March 1999 Added "What is God Saying?". 27 June 1999 pointer to aspectual analysis of marriage. 19 August 1999 link to xn/index.html. 9 September 1999 altered CVE to ISI and added link to BHG. 21 November 1999 links to Shit and Atonement. 16 January 2000 Creation. 10 October 2000 link to links and rants. 1 November 2000 new link to CV. 7 February 2001 removed mailto. 13 May 2001 a bit on amiga. 18 May 2001 Elaine Storkey tftd link. 30 September 2001 new link to usa attack. 17 December 2001 work index better. 6 March 2002 started comment section. 20 March 2002 better link to ncrug. 22 September 2002 links to Bab5 and Asperger page. 11 November 2002 slight changes, extra links. 22 September 2003 removed some old stuff from start. 14 November 2003 ffuis. 18 January 2005 rants links. 2 March 2005 Climate Change Programme Review response. 8 June 2005 various links corrected. 25 March 2006 unet. 16 September 2007 greens and modern life. 11 October 2007 link to cv. 19 January 2008 isi->basden,dooy. 19 October 2009 link to green, wind. 23 November 2009 Andrew.jpg->andrew.jpg. 28 December 2009 NV; better BHG link. 28 May 2010 clarifier, Stimulator 17 May 2011 links repaired. 10 March 2013 nexus 10. 7 March 2016 corrected xn links.
4 February 2023 Complete Revamp, to bring up-to-date; kept the above but hived it off to separate file.