Category Archives: Thinking

Three brief (non-political) items today.

Posted on Saturday 3 February 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

On entertaining new ideas; Reality and quantum mechanics; Nature as the great recycler. Here’s the first post in a new column that sounds interesting. Washington Post, Daniel Pink, 29 Jan 2024: Opinion | American imagination needs an adrenaline shot. Here’s … Continue reading →

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Epistemology: What Does Anyone Actually “Know”?

Posted on Tuesday 14 June 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Slate, Ben Mathis-Lilley, 10 Jun 2022: Does Donald Trump Really “Know” Anything?.

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Novella et al: THE SKEPTICS’ GUIDE TO THE UNIVERSE

Posted on Wednesday 8 December 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Novella, Dr. Steven, et al. The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe: How to Know What’s Really Real in a World Increasingly Full of Fake. Grand Central, 2018. *** I read this shortly after publication, nearly three years ago now, and … Continue reading →

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Ls&Cs: More About Thinking, or Not

Posted on Saturday 18 September 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Once again, the general theme is how some people think things through, and how others prefer “stories” or being told what to think. Heroes and villains; conservative media vs. coastal elites; when an enemy is not a speaker of a … Continue reading →

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Ls&Cs and Thoughts: Thinking and Science

Posted on Thursday 16 September 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Following up from yesterday, some more thoughts and links about the notion of thinking, and how that’s what science is all about, while so many people seem to have no understanding of what thinking, let alone science, actually is.

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Links and Comments: Thinking, or Not

Posted on Wednesday 19 August 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

Scientific American: Nine COVID-19 Myths That Just Won’t Go Away. Subtitle: From a human-made virus to vaccine conspiracy theories, we rounded up the most persistent false claims about the pandemic. I’m beginning to think that many, perhaps most, people, do … Continue reading →

Posted in Psychology, Thinking | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Thinking, or Not

Arguing with a Flat Earther

Posted on Monday 30 April 2018 by Mark R. Kelly

Vox: How to argue with flat-earthers, subtitled, “But not necessarily convince them.” People committed to the belief that the Earth is flat (or that the universe was created 6000 years ago) will have answers to all your challenges, all your … Continue reading →

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Thought Leaders

Posted on Saturday 28 January 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

A couple days ago I was dipping into Peter Singer’s latest book, Ethics in the Real World: 82 Brief Essays on Things That Matter, and saw him mention something about his being a “thought leader” according to some German outfit … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Two from Today’s NYT

Posted on Sunday 8 May 2016 by Mark R. Kelly

First, fascinating essay by Michael P. Lynch (author of just-released The Internet of Us: Knowing More and Understanding Less in the Age of Big Data): Trump, Truth and the Power of Contradiction. How is it Trump can say completely contradictory … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Truth and Slavery

Posted on Saturday 30 April 2016 by Mark R. Kelly

This article in The New Yorker, After the Fact by Jill Lepore, considers the current US presidential race in light of a new book by Michael Patrick Lynch, The Internet of Us, subtitled “Knowing More and Understanding Less in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Religion, Thinking | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Truth and Slavery