Category Archives: Science

EO Wilson, CONSILIENCE, 10

Chapter 11, Ethics and Religion The chapter in the book that would most challenge conservatives, or anyone who thinks morality and religion are handed down from on high. Key points in this chapter: On ethics: Author summarizes arguments on both … Continue reading

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A Potential Revolutionary Scientific Reinterpretation

No one thinks that all of physics, or cosmology, is solved; the reigning problems in cosmology include contradictory conclusions about the age of the universe, and the nature of “dark matter” and “dark energy,” both terms being placeholders for unknown … Continue reading

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EO Wilson, CONSILIENCE, 9

Chapter 10, The Arts and Their Interpretation Here we have perhaps the area most resistant to the idea of biological or psychological interpretation. Because it doesn’t occur, especially to the artists themselves, why people tell certain kinds of stories and … Continue reading

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EO Wilson, CONSILIENCE, 8

Chapter 9, The Social Sciences Now Wilson begins takes his conclusions about human nature and searches for ways to bring insight, if not explanation, to various aspects of human culture, in particular studies in the humanities that are supposedly resistant to … Continue reading

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EO Wilson, CONSILIENCE, 7

Chapter 8, The Fitness of Human Nature This is perhaps the core chapter of the book, in that it brings together ideas about the mind, genes, and culture from the previous two chapters, and sets up a basis for the … Continue reading

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EO Wilson, CONSILIENCE, 6

Chapter 7, From Genes to Culture This chapter is about “gene-culture coevolution.” Also, this is the point in the book where Wilson mentions C.P. Snow’s “Two Cultures” (which I discussed here almost six years ago.) Key points in this chapter: … Continue reading

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EO Wilson, CONSILIENCE, 5

Chapter 6: The Mind Here’s the chapter in Wilson that corresponds to Pinker’s entire book. There are ideas here that reflect some of Nagel‘s topics, as well, and some of the thoughts I had while reading his book. Key points … Continue reading

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EO Wilson, CONSILIENCE, 4

Having finished reading that long Steven Pinker book, and blogging about it, I’m now returning to a contemporaneous book, published just a year after Pinker, E.O. Wilson’s CONSILIENCE, from 1998. After sampling it for years I read it through in … Continue reading

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Cosmic and Psychological Lessons

Phil Plait on the scale of the cosmos; Beware of pluralistic ignorance; How math education can be better taught with examples about money. – – –   Today’s cosmic lesson. Scientific American, Phil Plait, 8 Mar 2024: The Scale of … Continue reading

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The Anthropocene, or Not

Experts have declined to acknowledge “Anthropocene” as an official name for our current geological time; And how to some extent the decision was political, if not in the obvious sense; And wondering why Republicans continue to nominate candidates like Mark … Continue reading

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