Search Results for: how the mind works

That Potential Revolutionary Scientific Reinterpretation? Never Mind.

That Potential Revolutionary Scientific Reinterpretation I posted about four days ago does not seem to have played out (but that’s how science works); A nice summary of the top five astronomical discoveries of all time (so far); And a dicier … Continue reading

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David McRaney, HOW MINDS CHANGE

How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion (Portfolio/Penguin, June 2022, 330pp) Almost a decade ago I discovered two books by David McRaney, YOU ARE NOT SO SMART (2011) and YOU ARE NOW LESS DUMB (2013) that … Continue reading

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Robert Sheckley, MINDSWAP (1966)

Robert Sheckley was a science fiction writer who debuted in the early 1950s, right about the time Philip K. Dick that did. They were both prolific short story writers through the ’50s, each publishing several stories a year, in the … Continue reading

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Passages: How the World Works

My favorite news magazine, The Week, is celebrating 20 years of publication with its current April 16th issue, which has retrospectives of cover images, editorial essays, and so on. Here’s one of the latter, by editor-in-chief William Falk.

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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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