Here is a short excerpt of an address I’ll be delivering at Geneseo College devoted to Lincoln’s Bicentennial: Of course, the occasion for my lecture today is the Bicentennial celebration of Abraham’s Lincoln’s birth. It’s worth noting that today is also the bicentennial . . . . Continue Reading »
Here is an excerpt from an article on Chantal Delsol I have forthcoming in Perspectives on Political Science : In the place of “true judgment” or prudence, the defenders of international justice satisfy their hunger for rational certitude and analytical specificity with mere . . . . Continue Reading »
One of the most telling but least commented upon lines in President Obama’s inaugural speech was his promise to “restore science to its proper place”. Since he doesn’t expand upon this restoration in the remainder of the speech it’s not immediately obvious what this . . . . Continue Reading »
This one will stir up a hornet’s nest . . . . The words “global warming” may have achieved Pavlovian status. Like the ringing of the bell that accompanied the Alpo fed to Pavlov’s dogs, the words foster an immediate and instinctive response by adherents of our . . . . Continue Reading »
Over at Upturned Earth, John Schwenkler has asked for an eighth-grade-level refresher course on what an r-squared value means . Given how prone to misinterpretation the correlation coefficient is, it’s a little bit easier to talk about what it doesn’t mean. This is also a useful . . . . Continue Reading »
David Deutsch, controversial quantum physicist extraordinaire, lays into modern science in a big way (H/t: WGL3): I don’t know. I suspect it is related to a more general anti-rational phenomenon that was present in nearly all 20th-century philosophies, especially logical positivism, and . . . . Continue Reading »
The debate below between Pat Deneen and Peter Berkowitz is interesting and perhaps exceedingly relevant, given the coming "regime change." I’m going to open my course for seniors with it. I agree that Peter distorts virtue by understanding it primarily as useful for . . . . Continue Reading »
In a recent interview on his Mars Hill Audio magazine, Ken Myers interviews Craig Holdrege, co-author of Beyond Biotechnology . One of Holdrege’s key points is that scientists have moved well beyond the early idea that the gene is the “unmoved mover” that determines everything . . . . Continue Reading »
I’ll confess to being a little bit dissatisfied both by Helen’s latest screed contra statistics and by Prof. Kenneally’s argument that science improperly understood ignores the qualities of our lived experience . Both have managed to say a lot of true things but neither, in my . . . . Continue Reading »
"At the time and in the country in which the present study was written, it was granted by everyone except backward people that the Jewish faith had not been refuted by science or by history . . . . [O]ne could grant to science and history everything they seem to teach . . . . Continue Reading »
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