As I wrote earlier today, how Sarah Palin’s devout Pentecostal faith colors her views on complex policy problems such as Iraq or climate change is a relevant question that journalists […]
Search Results
You searched for: Philosophy
If a cliché is beautifully wrought does it save it from the evils of being cliché? David Brooks does not like what he refers to as the “Quiet Desperation dogma” […]
"In popular debates about God’s existence, the winners are neither theists nor atheists, but agnostics, who rightly point out that neither side in the debate has made its case."
William James was about the only philosopher who didn’t end up a pettifogging nit-picker or overbearing egomaniac with delusions of genius. So says New Humanist's Jonathan Rée.
More than 50 years after the publication of CP Snow’s seminal Two Cultures, interdisciplinary partnerships between science and other academic “cultures” are being urged once again. Today, the focus is […]
In a report on the 2007 activities of the Center for Inquiry, chair Paul Kurtz adds further to how he differentiates a positive and life affirming secular view of the […]
At The Guardian site, Martin Robbins has nailed everything that’s wrong with science news on “general interest” websites in this pitch-perfect parody. It gets at the heart of the uneasy […]
Facebook and similar social networking sites hold vast potential for reaching non-traditional audiences for science. As the NY Times reports today, Facebook has 25 million users and growing as the […]
"It makes no difference whether determinism is true or false. We can’t be ultimately morally responsible either way." A philosophy professor takes the gravity out of the free-will debate.
Spiegel follows the "Elvis of cultural studies" to a conference in Berlin where he presents his esoteric and eccentric ideas on the behavior of "late capitalism".
Neil deGrasse Tyson understands the central role of framing in communication and it’s a major reason that Tyson is perhaps the most effective science popularizer of his generation. In a […]
"Imagine that right after briefing Adam about which fruit was allowed and which forbidden, God had installed a closed-circuit television camera in the garden of Eden."
Growing up, I always found the few Black faces in superhero comic books fascinating, like rare birds. Luke Cage, aka, Power Man, bristled with attitude like Shaft on steroids. Black […]
By studying the neural networks in the brain, scientists have constructed computer-based models that mirror the brain's complex biological networks.
The dominant image of atheism: Blogger PZ Myers wearing a scarlet letter “A” for atheism T-shirt.Atheists have a major image problem. There’s a reason that when people ask me what […]
As I’ve argued, one of the reasons I find the New Atheist PR campaign so troubling is that it is has radicalized a movement that feeds on anger and fear […]
I guess the New Yorker is still trying to redeem itself for the notorious “The Politics Of Fear” cartoon cover during the 2008 presidential primary that depicted Barack Obama in […]
The Financial Times appeals to an Oxford philosophy professor to find the essence of beauty. Darwin said it was sex. For Estée Lauder, it was glamor. But what does beauty mean today?
The philosopher Paul Kurtz has published a new position booklet that addresses much of what I have been arguing is missing–and so deeply troubling–about the New Atheist movement. Below is […]
The New York Times has introduced a new blog, on philosophy. It’s called Stone. The first piece/post is written by the very elegant and, philosophically, compelling Simon Critchley, and addresses […]
Not unexpectedly, the Slatearticle last week generated a range of reactions at blogs, on twitter, and in personal emails that I received. This topic is not going away and as […]
"Having perpetual freedom in our romantic choices can be a mixed blessing," says philosophy professor Aaron Ben-Zeév. "Boundaries are essential for human behavior."
Brooklyn-based design studio Hyperakt operates under the admirable slogan of “Meaningful Design for the Common Good” – a commitment to only work with companies whose products and services create positive change […]
Stephen Hawking’s latest book Grand Design sits atop the Amazon best-seller list and has been the subject of gobal news attention and debate. Driving discussion (and sales) is Hawking’s “no […]
One paper in the special issue proposes strategies for catalyzing greater collaboration on climate change communication among the “four cultures.” The August issue of the journal Frontiers in Ecology and […]
Has how we think about lofty things - like the meaning of life - been hijacked by a deep-pocketed foundation that successfully combines elite research and broad dissemination?
Sometimes it seems that everyone has abandoned the notion that rational self-interest drives people’s decisions. It’s high time for some answers to the next obvious question: If Reason doesn’t rule […]
What would you do to give your child a head-start in life? If you’re one of the millions of so-called “helicopter parents” we discussed previously in our series, the answer […]
"While taking a more relaxed attitude towards the pursuit of wealth may make sense as a personal philosophy, it is an uncertain guide to public policy," says the Financial Times.
When children are born with severe, debilitating conditions like some forms of spina bifida—in which some vertebrae on top of the spinal cord remain unfused and open—their lives can often […]