Category Archives: Science

Trust in Science, Bertrand Russell, and Religious “Truth”

An item about restoring trust in science, which doesn’t say very much except to improve education; A reading from Bertrand Russell, about religion, morals, and science; How a religious thinker thinks historians should only tell history that is “inspiring and … Continue reading

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Third Essay of the Weekend

An Elizabeth Kolbert essay about the debate about the term “Anthropocene”; And Neil Finn’s beautiful lullaby “Faster than Light”. * This is Elizabeth Kolbert (author of The Sixth Extinction, one of the best nonfiction books of the 21st century; review … Continue reading

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Joshua Greene, MORAL TRIBES, post 1

Here is a substantial book about human morality that offers ideas that, to me, help to knit together the ideas of others. For chronological context, this 2013 book follows, of course, the 1997 Pinker book that I recently read (review … Continue reading

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The poorly educated and the “cognishly umpired”

A Tom Gauld cartoon illustrating tribalism — “Our Blessed Homeland” vs. “Their Barbarous Wastes”; Anti-woke teachers in public schools; Abrahm Lustgarten on the American climate migration (which applies to the wider world, of course); More from John Gartner about Trump’s … Continue reading

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Daniel Dennett, Exploring the Universe, the Eclipse, and How so Many People have no idea what an eclipse is about

Daniel Dennett’s four biggest ideas in philosophy; Why we spend money to explore the universe; Washington Post with images of the eclipse; And SF author CJ Cherryh on how so many ‘people on the street’ have no idea what makes … Continue reading

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Jaime Green, THE POSSIBILITY OF LIFE

Here is a book published about a year ago now that turns out to be very similar, thematically, to the more recent book by Adam Frank, The Little Book of Aliens, that I reviewed here in January. That book was … Continue reading

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Eclipse Aftermath, and Politics

First of all, our street had a scheduled power outage this morning, from 9-12, so I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to see any of the TV coverage of the total eclipse crossing the eastern US today. There were … Continue reading

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The Awe of the Solar Eclipse

Three items today. Addressing a piece that claims that the awe of the solar eclipse, tomorrow, will somehow unite humanity (I think not; it hasn’t before); Another appreciation of Daniel Kahneman, who explained how humans think, and established the idea … Continue reading

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Conspiracy Theories: Solar Eclipse Edition

Salon on how solar eclipses are a breeding ground for conspiracy theories; Rolling Stone on how the far right is subject to conspiracy theories; Free Inquiry on why solar eclipses are nowhere close to being evidence of a creator. While … Continue reading

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Imagine Prioritizing Truth Over Being Right

Here’s an amazing notion: there are some people who would rather find the truth, than be right. These are the scientists — some of them, anyway. This concerns Daniel Kahneman, whose death I noted a week ago here. NY Times, … Continue reading

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