Right Again

By webmaster on September 30, 2008 8:02 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Right Again -- The New Yorker

It is a hard thing, being right about everything all the time. Nobody likes a know-it-all, and we wait for the moment when the know-it-all is wrong to insist that he never really knew anything in the first place. The know-it-all, far from living in smug superiority, has the burden of being right the next time, too. Certainly no one has ever been so right about so many things so much of the time as John Stuart Mill

Against Intuition

By webmaster on September 30, 2008 7:55 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Against Intuition - ChronicleReview.com

"If anything can be pursued in an armchair, philosophy can," the esteemed Oxford philosopher Timothy Williamson told the Aristotelian Society, of London, a few years ago. That may sound like an innocuous truism: No one pictures Bertrand Russell doing his philosophical cogitation anywhere but in a club chair, or perhaps in bed, postcoitally (given his adventurousness in that arena). But, in fact, Williamson's remarks are fighting words these days, thanks to the rise of a cohort of philosophers who believe that the armchair arguments of philosophers need to be probed and tested through surveys of ordinary people and laboratory experiments using human subjects. If philosophers want to demonstrate that their arguments comport with how the mind really works, say the proponents of experimental philosophy, they need to get off their duffs.

Why Loneliness Feels Cold and Sins Feel Dirty

By webmaster on September 27, 2008 3:35 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Metaphors of the Mind: Why Loneliness Feels Cold and Sins Feel Dirty: Scientific American

When people's moral self image is threatened, as when they think about their own unethical past behaviors, people literally experience the need to engage in physical cleansing, as if the moral stain is literally physical dirt. We tested this idea in multiple studies and showed that when reminded of their past moral transgressions, people were more likely to think about cleansing-related words such as "wash" and "soap", expressed stronger preference for cleansing products (for instance, a soap bar), and were also more likely to accept an antiseptic wipe as a free gift (rather than a pencil with equal value).

Anonymity Can Turn Nice People Nasty

By webmaster on September 27, 2008 3:15 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Anonymity can turn nice people nasty - Msnbc.com

In a February 2008 study published in the journal Psychological Reports, researchers found that out of four groups of participants, only those in the anonymous group took part in antisocial behavior -- in this case defined as violating rules to obtain a reward. "I definitely believe that anonymity affects the frequency of antisocial behavior among individuals to some extent, even when these individuals have a reasonable sense of morality -- so-called 'ordinary people,'" says study author Tatsuya Nogami of Nagoya University in Japan.

Steven Pinker chalks it up to the blank slate

By webmaster on September 27, 2008 1:12 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Link here to the TED site.

Is Morality Natural?

By webmaster on September 27, 2008 6:21 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Is Morality Natural? Newsweek.com

These are moral dilemmas because there are no clear-cut answers that obligate duty to one party over the other. What is remarkable is that people with different backgrounds, including atheists and those of faith, respond in the same way. Moreover, when asked why they make their decisions, most people are clueless, but confident in their choices. In these cases, most people say that it is acceptable to speed up the boat, but iffy to omit care to the patient. Although many people initially respond that it is unthinkable to suffocate the baby, they later often say that it is permissible in that situation.

The Thinker

By Jeff on September 24, 2008 12:19 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

The Thinker by Jonathan Mahler

....Being a philosopher requires you to engage in the practice of relentless inquiry about everything, so it's not surprising that Jolley has spent untold hours puzzling over how to best teach the discipline itself. What he has decided is that philosophy can't be taught -- or learned -- like other academic subjects. To begin with, it takes longer. "Plato said that you become a philosopher by spending 'much time' in sympathy with other philosophers," he told me. "Much time. I take that very seriously." We were sitting in his office, which was dark with academic books and journals; a large paperweight reading "Think" sat amid the clutter on his desk. "Plato," he went on, "talked about it as a process of 'sparking forth,' that as you spend more time with other philosophers, you eventually catch the flame. That's how I think about teaching philosophy."

The Scientific Method

By webmaster on September 23, 2008 8:01 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Philosophy of Science

We want to gain knowledge; to understand how the world works and to use this understanding to predict how things will work in the future, and to change the future. But, our desire to gain knowledge is hampered by the realization that we make mistakes and that these mistakes are often difficult to find. How much emphasis should we place on moving forward (building on truths we have discovered) and how much should we focus on checking for errors in what we think we know?

Suppose I am standing in a large clearing surrounded by forest. My guide book says that a path starts in this clearing and leads, eventually, to a magnificent waterfall. Unfortunately, the book does not specify where the path starts. As I walk around the perimeter of the clearing I notice a break in the undergrowth with a worn track leading off between two trees. I glance around and realize that most of the perimeter is unexplored. I've found a path, but is it the path?

Continue reading The Scientific Method.

Without God

By webmaster on September 23, 2008 7:56 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Without God - The New York Review of Books

Let's grant that science and religion are not incompatible--there are after all some (though not many) excellent scientists, like Charles Townes and Francis Collins, who have strong religious beliefs. Still, I think that between science and religion there is, if not an incompatibility, at least what the philosopher Susan Haack has called a tension, that has been gradually weakening serious religious belief, especially in the West, where science has been most advanced. Here I would like to trace out some of the sources of this tension, and then offer a few remarks about the very difficult question raised by the consequent decline of belief, the question of how it will be possible to live without God.

What Happens When We Die?

By webmaster on September 22, 2008 6:24 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

What Happens When We Die? Time Magazine

A fellow at New York City's Weill Cornell Medical Center, Dr. Sam Parnia is one of the world's leading experts on the scientific study of death. Last week Parnia and his colleagues at the Human Consciousness Project announced their first major undertaking: a 3-year exploration of the biology behind "out-of-body" experiences. The study, known as AWARE (AWAreness during REsuscitation), involves the collaboration of 25 major medical centers through Europe, Canada and the U.S. and will examine some 1,500 survivors of cardiac arrest. TIME spoke with Parnia about the project's origins, its skeptics and the difference between the mind and the brain.

And, check out this reaction to Parina's experiment:

Can human consciousness survive without a brain? Guardian.co.uk

If Parnia does the experiments properly, and his patients really can see those images, then I will change my mind about the paranormal. I don't think it's going to happen but I do think it's worth him making the attempt.

Mapgie Consciousness?

By webmaster on September 20, 2008 8:23 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Animal Magnetism? Wild Special Powers -- ABC News

Another German research team has made the equally surprising discovery that magpies have a sense of self-recognition when looking in a mirror.

Until now, this characteristic "human" capability has been seen clearly only in apes, though also, as the team notes, "at least suggestively in dolphins and elephants." It also notes that the magpie findings "suggest that essential components of human self-recognition have evolved independently in different vertebrate classes with a separate evolutionary history." Helmut Prior at Germany's Goethe University in Frankfurt and colleagues described the magpie experiments in the August issue of PLoS Biology. The birds were given distinctive marks they could not see directly but could see in the mirror.

The way a bird dealt with the spot or other marking by scratching or removing it showed it saw the mirror image as reflecting itself and not simply as being another bird. While the scientists conclude that their finding shows "that elaborate cognitive skills arose independently" in birds and mammals, they warn against reading too much into that implication.

What Makes People Vote Republican?

By webmaster on September 18, 2008 8:58 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

What Makes People Vote Republican? By Jonathan Haidt

...[N]ow that we can map the brains, genes, and unconscious attitudes of conservatives, we have refined our diagnosis: conservatism is a partially heritable personality trait that predisposes some people to be cognitively inflexible, fond of hierarchy, and inordinately afraid of uncertainty, change, and death. People vote Republican because Republicans offer "moral clarity"--a simple vision of good and evil that activates deep seated fears in much of the electorate. Democrats, in contrast, appeal to reason with their long-winded explorations of policy options for a complex world.

And, watch Johnathan Haidt's presentation at the TED conference.

Here is a direct link to the TED site where you can download the video and join in discussion.

Beauty and the Brain

By webmaster on September 17, 2008 3:59 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Beauty and the Brain -- Seed Magazine

Why is something beautiful? David Hume argued that beauty exists not in things but "in the mind that contemplates them." And everyone has at some point heard the old saw that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But Plato had a fanciful answer made to argue for a universal truth: In his world of forms, he claimed there existed a perfect Form of Beauty, which was imperfectly manifested in what we call beautiful.

E.O. Wilson & James Watson on Charles Darwin

By Jeff on September 17, 2008 11:33 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

An hour on the life and work of Charles Darwin with James Watson, chancellor, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and E.O. Wilson, professor emeritus, Harvard University.

[Direct Link]

Online Literacy Is a Lesser Kind

By webmaster on September 17, 2008 8:15 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Online Literacy Is a Lesser Kind - ChronicleReview.com

In the eye-tracking test, only one in six subjects read Web pages linearly, sentence by sentence. The rest jumped around chasing keywords, bullet points, visuals, and color and typeface variations. In another experiment on how people read e-newsletters, informational e-mail messages, and news feeds, Nielsen exclaimed, "'Reading' is not even the right word." The subjects usually read only the first two words in headlines, and they ignored the introductory sections. They wanted the "nut" and nothing else.

Why Do We Believe Impossible Things?

By webmaster on September 17, 2008 5:56 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Why Do We Believe Impossible Things? -- ABC News

Wolpert argues that our wide range of beliefs, some of which are clearly false, grew out of a uniquely human trait. Alone in the animal world, humans understand cause and effect, and that, he says, led ultimately to the invention of tools, the rapid rise of sophisticated technology, and of course, beliefs. Even the earliest humans understood that many events that shaped their lives resulted from specific causes. Therefore, there must be a cause behind every event.

Searching for that cause, Wolpert says, led to the rise of religion because surely there must be some purpose behind all this, some ultimate cause at work in the universe.

Wolpert is an atheist, but he says he isn't trying to convert anyone to atheism. If so, he may be the only person on the planet who is willing to share his deeply held beliefs without caring whether he can convince anyone to believe the same way. But his basic premise is sound. We all know other people, not ourselves of course, who hold some beliefs that are absurd, or at least grossly lacking in evidence. Why?

Gender Gaps Widen

By webmaster on September 15, 2008 8:33 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

As External Barriers Disappear, Internal Gender Gaps Widen - NYTimes.com

When men and women take personality tests, some of the old Mars -Venus stereotypes keep reappearing. On average, women are more cooperative, nurturing, cautious and emotionally responsive. Men tend to be more competitive, assertive, reckless and emotionally flat. Clear differences appear in early childhood and never disappear.

Anthropologists Develop New Approach To Explain Religious Behavior

By Jeff on September 12, 2008 8:30 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Anthropologists Develop New Approach To Explain Religious Behavior -Science Daily

Without a way to measure religious beliefs, anthropologists have had difficulty studying religion. Now, two anthropologists from the University of Missouri and Arizona State University have developed a new approach to study religion by focusing on verbal communication, an identifiable behavior, instead of speculating about alleged beliefs in the supernatural that cannot actually be identified.

Uncritical Thinking Kills

By webmaster on September 12, 2008 7:41 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Uncritical Thinking Kills -- Discover Magazine

When I saw this website, I laughed. I couldn't help it; it's a funny idea.

That webcam site is a joke. It's not real, it's a satire on people who think the LHC would cause the end of the world. I laughed when I saw it.

But I'm not laughing now.

In India the other day, a young girl, distraught with fear that the world was ending when the LHC turned on, killed herself. She died, because she didn't understand the truth.

Now that site is less funny, isn't it? All over the world, in all different countries, people are raised to believe in superstitious nonsense, and raised to believe with all their hearts that it's real.

And when we do that, we do far more than remove people from reality. We leave them vulnerable to all manners of nonsense, from believing in fairies to truly and honestly thinking the LHC will destroy the planet. People don't learn how to think critically, and then they drink homeopathic water instead of taking real medicine, they chelate their children, or they deny their children vaccinations. And when that happens, people die. Children die.

Brain scanners trying to pinpoint our virtues within

By webmaster on September 11, 2008 5:59 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Brain scanners trying to pinpoint our virtues within -- USA Today

Images that purport to show — in living color — the parts of the brain that generate such virtues as compassion, fairness and wisdom are invading turf that was once reserved for philosophers, theologians and psychologists.

Origin of the specious

By Jeff on September 10, 2008 1:10 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

AC Grayling dissects a new defence of Intelligent Design

It is sometimes hard to know whether books that strike one as silly and irresponsible, like Dissent over Descent, the latest book from Steve Fuller, are the product of a desire to strike a pose and appear outrageous (the John Gray syndrome), or really do represent that cancer of the contemporary intellect, post-modernism. I suppose putatively sincere extrusions of the post-modern sensibility might henceforth deserve to be known as "the Steve Fuller syndrome". For this offering by the American-born sociologist is a classic case of the absurdity to which that sensibility leads.

Gandhi Pills?

By webmaster on September 10, 2008 7:13 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Psychiatrist Argues for Moral Performance Enhancers -- Wired.com

Could the right drug make you a better person?

A British psychiatrist raises and argues for that possibility in a new paper in a prominent psychiatry journal. In fact, he says that in many clinical settings, moral steroids are already being used.

"Within many clinical encounters, there may already be a subtle form of moral assistance going on, albeit one we do not choose to describe in these terms," writes Sean Spence of the University of Sheffield in the British Journal of Psychiatry."

Performance-enhancing drugs are generally used to enhance performance in competitive settings, like sports. On Wired Science, we've spent a lot of time looking at ways to increase cognitive performance. But what Spence suggests is that science should be searching for drugs to make people more "humane" not just smarter.

Gender Differences Seen in Brain Connections

By webmaster on September 9, 2008 7:26 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Gender differences seen in brain connections -- New Scientist

Human brains appear to come in at least two flavours: male and female. Now variations in the density of the synapses that connect neurons may help to explain differences in how men and women think.

Barry C. Smith on Neuroscience and the Mind

By webmaster on September 9, 2008 7:20 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Barry C. Smith on Neuroscience -- Philosophy bites

In this interview for Philosophy Bites Barry C. Smith, the new director of the Institute of Philosophy in London, discusses the impact of recent discoveries in neuroscience (including blind sight and mirror neurones) on our understanding of the mind and our senses.

Listen to Barry Smith on Neuroscience

The Triviality of the Debate Over 'Is-Ought' and the Definition of 'Moral' -Peter Singer

By Jeff on September 7, 2008 2:37 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

The Triviality of the Debate Over 'Is-Ought' and the Definition of 'Moral'
by Peter Singer

"THE central problem in moral philosophy is commonly known as the is-ought problem." So runs the opening sentence of the introduction to a recent volume of readings on this issue. [1] Taken as a statement about the preoccupations of moral philosophers of the present century, we can accept this assertion. The problem of how statements of fact are related to moral judgments has dominated recent moral philosophy. Associated with this problem is another, which has also been given considerable attention - the question of how morality is to be defined. The two issues are linked, since some definitions of morality allow us to move from statements of fact to moral judgments, while others do not. In this article I shall take the two issues together, and try to show that they do not merit the amount of attention they have been given. I shall argue that the differences between the contending parties are terminological, and that there are various possible terminologies, none of which has, on balance, any great advantage over any other terminology. So instead of continuing to regard these issues as central, moral philosophers could, I believe, "agree to disagree" about the "is-ought" problem, and about the definition of morality, provided only that everyone was careful to stipulate how he was using the term "moral" and was aware of the implications and limitations of the definition he was using. Moral philosophers could then move on to consider more important issues.

The Importance of Daydreaming and Empty Time

By webmaster on September 3, 2008 11:27 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Important work can be done while daydreaming -The Boston Globe

In recent years, however, scientists have begun to see the act of daydreaming very differently. They've demonstrated that daydreaming is a fundamental feature of the human mind - so fundamental, in fact, that it's often referred to as our "default" mode of thought. Many scientists argue that daydreaming is a crucial tool for creativity, a thought process that allows the brain to make new associations and connections. Instead of focusing on our immediate surroundings - such as the message of a church sermon - the daydreaming mind is free to engage in abstract thought and imaginative ramblings. As a result, we're able to imagine things that don't actually exist, like sticky yellow bookmarks.

Emotional Pain Hurts More Than Physical Pain

By webmaster on September 1, 2008 3:19 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Emotional pain hurts more than physical pain, researchers say - Telegraph

In a finding that calls into question the old saying that "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me", psychologists used four experiments to discover how people get over emotional or physical pain. In their paper "When Hurt Will Not Heal: Exploring the Capacity to Relive Social and Physical Pain", the authors propose recent discoveries suggesting social or emotional pain is as real and intense as physical pain.

Thanks, Jenny

By webmaster on September 1, 2008 6:44 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Thanks, Jenny -- NeuroLogica Blog

The CDC yesterday updated their report on recent cases of measles. In 2000, thanks to the aggressive vaccination program, measles was declared eradicated from the US. There continued to be on average 63 cases per year from 2001-2007 due to imported cases from outside the US. To ironically quote Jim Carrey from the aptly titled, A Series of Unfortunate Events - "Then the unthinkable happened."

September 2008 Archives