Human beings have always yearned to know the future, and there have always been other human beings who claimed they could predict it. The ancient Greeks consulted the sibyls, female oracles of great age who under divine inspiration uttered verses given them by the gods of the famous shrines they . . . . Continue Reading »
Our over-reliance on data in politics and economics has come at a cost. Continue Reading »
Plagues are no longer tragedies but technical challenges. Continue Reading »
Among the blessings of modern living, we routinely count standard vaccinations for adults and children. Scourges such as smallpox have been eradicated, due in part to mandatory vaccinations that ensure immunity in entire populations. When I heard that a significant number of parents, including some . . . . Continue Reading »
I am not altogether incurious, but one entity about which I have over the years felt little curiosity is my own body. Until recently, I could not have told you the function of my, or anyone else’s, pancreas, spleen, or gallbladder. I’d just as soon not have known that I have kidneys, and was . . . . Continue Reading »
Taleb has called the racialist behavioral geneticists to the field. Continue Reading »
A review of the book Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Save the World. Continue Reading »
Neo-Aristotelian Perspectives on Contemporary Science edited by william m. r. simpson, robert c. koons, and nicholas j. teh routledge, 352 pages, $140 Raphael’s School of Athens depicts Aristotle and Plato at the center of a group of ancient Greek philosophers modeled on . . . . Continue Reading »
Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress by steven pinker viking, 576 pages, $35 Steven Pinker, as his blurb reminds us, has been reckoned by Time magazine among the “hundred most influential people in the world today.” In Enlightenment Now he devotes . . . . Continue Reading »
Looking to bonobos as co-architects of modern systems of morality is a troubling trend. Continue Reading »
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