Search Results for: how the mind works

Links and Comments: Changing Minds; GOP Economics; Liars; Taxonomy of Trump Supporters

Items from NYT (Adam Grant); NYT (David Leonhardt); Slate (William Saletan); The Week, NYT, and Salon about Trump and the GOP; and NYT (Michelle Goldberg).

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Links and Comments: How Science Really Works; How Pandemics Can Trigger Cultural Renewal; Newton’s work during a Plague Year

(updated 18jul20) Slate, Shannon Palus: How Public Health Experts Feel About Being Wrong. Subtitle: “That they change their advice is actually why we should trust them.” The subtitle is precisely right. Experts, scientists, anyone with intellectual integrity change their minds … Continue reading

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Dying of Loneliness: TOS “Dagger of the Mind”

An escapee from the penal colony on Tantalus Five leads to a confrontation between Kirk, a beautiful psychiatrist crewman, and the genial yet mad director of the colony. The enhanced graphics for this episode depict the planet, Tantalus Five, as … Continue reading

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More notes and comments about Haidt’s THE RIGHTEOUS MIND

I like the way Haidt outlines his thesis in the introduction, provides central metaphors for each of the three main sections, and provides a 1-2 page summary at the end of each of the 12 chapters. (Academic books do this … Continue reading

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Jonathan Haidt’s THE RIGHTEOUS MIND: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, 1

Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion is a fascinating, insightful book. It uses psychological studies into moral sentiments around the world to develop ideas about the ‘foundations’ of morality, especially to expand … Continue reading

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How Science Works, Concerning that Retracted Gay Marriage Survey, and the Ironies

New York Times op-ed: What’s Behind Big Science Frauds? Other links: SFGate: Study retracted: 20 minutes actually CAN’T change a homophobe’s mind The New Yorker, Maria Konnikova: How a Gay-Marriage Study Went Wrong This concerns a report from a few … Continue reading

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Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 9

This time: Children. The old nature vs. nurture debate is too simplistic and binary. Given implications of our innate human nature, the (by now unsurprising) takeaway here is that parents have far less influence on their children than people have … Continue reading

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Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 5

After being distracted by Texas affairs, politics, Riven, and reading Brian Greene and others, let’s get back to this book and try to finish summarizing it and capturing key points. This and one more post. Earlier posts about this book: … Continue reading

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Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 1

Subtitled: “The Modern Denial of Human Nature” (Viking, Oct. 2002, 509pp, including 75pp appendix, notes, references, and index) This is an enormous, thorough book on a topic already covered to some extent by several of the other major books I’ve … Continue reading

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Looking Up Instead of Down

Two pieces today about how humanity is progressing, in its understanding of the world and in its social progress, rather than regressing, as conservative movements around the world are striving to do. Richard Dawkins on science as a jewel in … Continue reading

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