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Moral dimensions of political tribes permlink
Watching Beyond Belief 2 I was interested in Jonathan Haidt's contention that liberals and conservatives exhibit alternative valences on five different "Moral Foundations." In short, liberals tend to emphasize "Harm" and "Fairness," and manifest little interest in the values of...Posted on December 6, 2007 4:46 AM • 14 Comments
10 Questions for James Flynn permlink
Over at Gene Expression James Flynn answers 10 questions....Posted on December 2, 2007 3:14 PM • 0 Comments
Evolution of language permlink
Nature has two papers on language which I'll pass along (I don't know enough about this area to say anything non-tardish) for those who have an interest in such things. First, our old friend Martin Nowak is behind a group...Posted on October 10, 2007 2:46 PM • 2 Comments
New Steven Pinker interview permlink
Check out this new interview with Steven Pinker. It ostensibly focuses on his new book, The Stuff of Thought, though it covers a lot of ground. My own feeling is that the interviewer should have let the focus be more...Posted on August 25, 2007 10:33 PM • 3 Comments
The Black Swan permlink
Tyler Cowen has a nice review in Slate (actually, a slice & summation) of Nassim Nicholas Taleb's most recent book, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. Taleb's discursive and meandering narrative delves mostly into the domains of...Posted on June 15, 2007 10:38 AM • 7 Comments
The season needs no reason permlink
Below I spoke of historical perspective, while earlier I referred to Christmas as "universal pagan wine poured into a particular Christian chalice." I thought I might elaborate upon this. First, the cultural and historical origins of Christmas are multi-textured. Though...Posted on December 24, 2006 4:29 PM • 16 Comments
Pinker vs. Lakoff permlink
Update: OK, a pro is in the house. Chris of Mixing Memory starts: I don't really know where to start on this. Lakoff's reply is one of the most intellectually dishonest pieces of writing I've seen from a cognitive scientist,...Posted on October 7, 2006 4:09 PM • 13 Comments
Culture naturally permlink
Back in August AlphaPsy had series of posts on 'naturalism' in the context of culture. Check them out! (links below) I strongly believe it is important to discuss human affairs with a multi-disciplinary lens, too often the public discourse is...Posted on September 30, 2006 1:08 PM • 2 Comments
Means vs. Ends & morality permlink
A few days ago Alex Palazzo posted about Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong. The title is pretty self-explanatory. The author has a Moral Sense Test that you can take. I took it. If...Posted on September 11, 2006 1:14 PM • 21 Comments
I believe it is so.... permlink
What people believe, what they say they believe and what they do may be wholly unrelated, but are never perfectly correlated. The only reason I note this is that I meet so many intelligent people who seem to assume a...Posted on April 16, 2006 3:33 PM • 5 Comments
Q & A with Judith Rich Harris permlink
Judith Rich Harris is author of The Nurture Assumption and the forthcoming No Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality. Her controversial thesis is that parents don't matter, genes and peers do, in making you who you are as a...Posted on January 25, 2006 3:55 PM • 0 Comments
