This morning On the Square Micah Watson offers commentary on a debate carried out over the past few months on the pages of Public Discourse between Hadley Arkes and Matthew O’Brien. The discourse began with O’Brien’s review of Arkes’ recently published Constitutional . . . . Continue Reading »
Continuing on the theme that the novels of Jane Austen can be used to explain just about anything , I give you this passage from Dorothy L. Cheney and Robert M. Seyfarth’s Baboon Metaphysics : In sum, monkey society is governed by the same two general rules that governed the behavior of women . . . . Continue Reading »
Game theory is a branch of applied mathematics that attempts to mathematically capture behavior in strategic situations, or games, in which an individual’s success in making choices depends on the choices of others. In his new book (a draft of which is available free online ), Michael Chwe . . . . Continue Reading »
The New Yorker is notorious for it rigorous fact-checking. But I never realized the same standards were applied to poets : To a literal-minded reader, “Lust for Life,” a poem Michael Robbins published last April in The New Yorker , would have raised a few questions. Are elephants . . . . Continue Reading »
A new poll finds that even though most Americans have grown more comfortable with same-sex or unmarried couples raising children, they still view single mothers as detrimental to society : The poll asked about 2,700 people for their views on seven trends in modern relationships that are upending . . . . Continue Reading »
The New England Journal of Medicine has been a stalwart supporter of Obamacare. But even its editors seem to see the handwriting on the wall about the individual purchase mandate, evidence by its hand-wringing editorial penned by Jonathan Oberlander, Ph.D.. From “”Under . . . . Continue Reading »
Peter, before I address your positions defending a strong central government and your position that slavery alone is the cause of the war, allow me this analogy: The issue at hand is similar to a walnut. The shell, surrounding the ‘meat’, is very strong and must be cracked in order to . . . . Continue Reading »
Stanford University’s William Hurlbut and I are great friends. Bill is best known for his service on the President’s Council on Bioethics, and his proposal to circumvent the ethics/science discord over human cloning and ESCR with “altered nuclear transfer,” which I . . . . Continue Reading »
Rick Gekoski thinks that reading may be a tad bit overrated : One might argue that literacy is unalloyedly a good thing – yes, I can think of counter-examples, but then again one always can – but it is pretty clear to me that reading, as in reading of literature, is not. What we read can . . . . Continue Reading »
Timothy Larsen, a professor at Wheaton College, answers four common questions young academics have about the mysterious process of getting a tenure-track professorship : Given how eminently well qualified I am for this position, how can you possibly justify eliminating me so early in the process? . . . . Continue Reading »
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