Category Archives: Psychology

Media, Mystics, and Two Key Republican Obsessions

Posted on Friday 3 November 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Two curious items from Facebook, about learning new media, and scientists as “mystics”; Three items, one by Paul Krugman, about the Republicans’ naked obsession with benefiting the ultra-wealthy; Three items, or maybe four, about Republican obsession with other people’s sex … Continue reading →

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How Psychology Trumps Everything

Posted on Thursday 2 November 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

The hierarchy of sciences in which, in terms of human beliefs about the real world, psychology trumps everything; The New Yorker on the plausibility of impossible beings (from 2017); Recalling that Venn Diagram of Irrational Nonsense; How “more than half … Continue reading →

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The Corporate Enemy of Truth

Posted on Monday 30 October 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Just finished Jonathan Rauch’s 2021 book The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth, which argues that the government and science have evolved analogous mechanisms to steadily close in on objective truth, with self-correcting mechanisms, and that modern political forces … Continue reading →

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Misapprehensions of Reality

Posted on Wednesday 25 October 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

The new House Speaker is an election denier who would criminalize homosexuality; How Christian conservatives are flatly wrong about homosexuality being “unnatural” or that “creed” is part of “what you are”; and the evolutionary reason why they resist homosexuality, cross-dressing, … Continue reading →

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The Twilight Zone of Religion and Conservative Politics

Posted on Tuesday 24 October 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Adam Lee counters Christian claims that “new atheism” has collapsed; it hasn’t Greta Christina patiently explains the vacuousness of “Pascal’s Wager” Religious presumption and “our religion” Republicans look to Jesus Republicans can break promises if God tells them to Short … Continue reading →

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Sapolsky’s New Book and the Idea of Free Will

Posted on Friday 20 October 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Five items about Robert M. Sapolsky and his new book, Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will. Which I haven’t read yet. ——   Robert M. Sapolsky, who published a big meaty book six years ago called Behave: The … Continue reading →

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Numerous Items From Recent Weeks

Posted on Monday 9 October 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

How the worldwide migration crisis is about civil wars and climate change, but also about the internet and smartphones; How the Luddites were not what we think, and why it might be appropriate to be one now; About the new … Continue reading →

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The Shifting Sands of Religious Dogma

Posted on Sunday 8 October 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Ross Douthat on the swings of dogma within the Catholic Church; Politicians who “textjack” the Bible; Valerie Tarico on 10 thought processes that trip up Christians. The pieces today echo other recent items: the Veritasium piece (posted on the 5th) … Continue reading →

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Evens and Beginnings

Posted on Thursday 5 October 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Veritasium on cognitive ease; How the world views the US’s disarray (due invariably to Republicans); How a century ago in France, smelling bad was a good thing; how standards about hygiene have changed; Two WaPo pieces about the decline of … Continue reading →

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Psychology and Ostranenie

Posted on Monday 2 October 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

What psychology is good for, and its recent accomplishments; The idea of Ostranenie, a kind of defamiliarization, which of course is one of those things science fiction does at its best. Big Think, Elizabeth Gilbert and Nick Hobson, 1 Oct … Continue reading →

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