Excerpt from a symposium on Loyal Rue’s Religion Is Not About God. Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science. There’s something horribly plausible about Ralph’s arguments, religion arising out of man’s unique awareness of his own mortality. . . . In fact—when you think about it in this light—the story of Original Sin in Genesis could easily…
My chum David Livingstone Smith’s long awaited edited collection of essays by a top-notch lineup is now available. To get a better sense of the scope of the project check out the book’s homepage as well as David’s other writings here. For the past thirty years I been of the view that though Hume did not have…
Here’s a nuanced and deep analysis on Brexit and extrapolations for a wider phenomenon. Those who truly want to understand what is happening should carefully consider the complex interplay of globalization, immigration, and changing values. Since many academics are in the business of activism masquerading as inquiry, I wouldn’t hold my breath. I’d urge the more intellectually honest…
Any book endorsed by Christian List must be taken notice of, the introductory chapter available here along with the OUP webpage. Contrary to the extracts below I think we actually have a very good theory as to how individuals (ants) aggregate — it’s called STIGMERGY. In a forthcoming special issue of Cognitive Systems Research we will be presenting…
Staying with the literature theme of a few days ago and earlier today, here is another write up on Jonathan Gottschall’s new book and an article by JG himself here and a related review article of another book by John Gray here. E. O. WilsonJonathan GottschallJonathan HaidtLiteratureNew AtheismSolzhenitsynStorytelling
E.O. Wilson is still going strong and is still stirring things up after all these years. E.O. is on my mind since I’m co-authoring a paper on stigmergy and he is one of the major players. Here are write-ups of his latest work. None other than Michael Gazzaniga in the WSJ Washington Post New York Times…
Here’s an article in this month’s Atlantic. Rejecting the views of classic political philosophers like Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau that primitive humankind started out as a collection of scattered, unorganized individuals, Fukuyama writes: “Human sociability is not a historical or cultural acquisition, but something hardwired into human nature.” Nowhere is Wilson, who pioneered this view,…
manwithoutqualities 