Category Archives: Philosophy & Politics

Want to Change Academic Publishing? Just Say No – Commentary – The Chronicle of Higher Education

When I became a professor, 20 years ago, I received a request from a woman who lived close to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where I taught: Could she come and talk to me about a set of interests she … Continue reading

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On the benefits of a philosophy major « Pleas and Excuses

The blog post below has a very nice graphic which details the proven skills that one obtains with a degree in philosophy. While I am tired of having to justify this over and over, I think it is important to … Continue reading

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Can E-Tutoring Bridge Economic Divides?

In a 1984 paper that is regarded as a classic of educational psychology, Benjamin Bloom, a professor at the University of Chicago, showed that being tutored is the most effective way to learn, vastly superior to being taught in a classroom. … Continue reading

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The Religiosity of the Fracking Debate

CSID Faculty Fellow Adam Briggle publishes at Science Progress: The debate over hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and the shale gas revolution it has spawned has a religious aura to it. Both sides have an unshakeable conviction that fracking is either … Continue reading

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How generous is the UK science budget, really? guardian.co.uk

Whatever you think about spending on sport, in times of austerity or otherwise, there is no denying that the strategy paid off – at least, if your yardstick for success is Olympic medals. The message couldn’t be more clear: if … Continue reading

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The Veil of Ignorance: How Americans view wealth & inequality – BBC News

When you taste wine and you know the label and you know the price, you are going to be influenced by that. And when you are tasting wine in a blind way, now you don’t have anything to base it … Continue reading

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Bernanke to Economists: More Philosophy, Please – Businessweek

Less economics and more philosophy… On Monday, Ben Bernanke wasn’t talking like a scientist. He was talking like a philosopher. “The ultimate purpose of economics, of course, is to understand and promote the enhancement of well-being,” he said. To a … Continue reading

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“Fracked Ideologies” published at Science Progress

The use of high-volume hydraulic fracturing for natural gas drilling has ignited a fiery political debate. Advocates tout natural gas as a clean-burning, cheap, and abundant fuel that can boost economic growth and energy security. Detractors question these benefits and … Continue reading

Posted in Accountability, Basic News, Broader Impacts, Degrowth Economics, Economics & STEM Research, Environmental policy, Gas Fracking, Philosophy & Politics, Public Philosophizing, Science and technology ramifications, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security, TechnoScience & Technoscientism | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

We need a knowledgeable nudge

Here Michael Levi of the Council on Foreign Relations argues that the SCOTUS ruling on the Affordable Care Act bodes well for the constitutionality of environmental policies that use taxes to influence our behavior. Of particular interest to me here … Continue reading

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Here’s the map… what’s the territory?

Maps of science have been proliferating for a number of years now, and interest has been heavily correlated to the advancement of mapping technologies. Philosophy has finally produced a blip on the mapping radar, and the results are pretty interesting. … Continue reading

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The Case for Breaking Up With Your Parents

While Lambert, author of “Nonstop,” admires the multitasking undergraduates Harvard attracts, he also worries about the intellectual and emotional costs of such all-consuming busyness. In a turn toward gravitas, he quotes the French film director Jean Renoir’s observation that “the … Continue reading

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Happiness: No longer the dismal science? | The Economist

They argue that happiness can be measured objectively; that it differs systematically across societies and over time; that happiness has predictable causes and is correlated to specific things (such as wealth, income distribution, health and political institutions); and that therefore it should be possible for … Continue reading

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Amazon vs. Apple: Competing Ecosystem Strategies

This shift from products to solutions matters to everyone. In industries ranging from consumer electronics to construction and from media to mining, the firms seizing the lead are those that can best align ecosystems of offers and partners. An interesting … Continue reading

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The Existential Logic of Scapegoating

My longtime companion & I are reading David Hume together right now. I have so enjoyed dipping back into his viewpoint and seeing how much his work influenced my entire professional vocation as a philosopher. I think the influence has … Continue reading

Posted in Accountability, Globalization, Occupy Wall Street, Philosophy & Politics, Science and technology ramifications | 1 Comment

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Ignorance

The less people know about important complex issues such as the economy, energy consumption and the environment, the more they want to avoid becoming well-informed, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association. And the more urgent the … Continue reading

Posted in Accountability, Climate Change, Degrowth Economics, Environmental policy, Occupy Wall Street, Philosophy & Politics, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security, TechnoScience & Technoscientism | Leave a comment

Martin Luther King: Science Advocate

@livingarchitect, Rachel Armstrong, passes along this great piece. It is a wonderful reminder of why reason & faith should not be seen as mutually exclusive. And captures some real insights on how an mindfully open science that is divorced from … Continue reading

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The Uneasy Technocratic Alliance

John Siegmund set the tone for the City of Denton’s appointed Gas Well Task Force. He articulated a classic engineering technocratic position that goes as follows. The problem with fracking is capitalism. The short-term profit motive of capitalists leads to … Continue reading

Posted in Accountability, Environmental policy, Gas Fracking, Philosophy & Politics, Public Philosophizing, Science and technology ramifications, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security, TechnoScience & Technoscientism | 2 Comments

The Successful Secede

This is something I have been talking about now for almost three years. The realization was a logical outcome of following the critiques of Serge Latouche, Michel Foucault and a few others. I am not quite sure why more academics … Continue reading

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Hobbes: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

A new book is out on Thomas Hobbes and our current political situation. This is an interview with the author, Prof. Ted H. Miller: Nature (and nature’s architect) had fallen short. With the right science, human beings could become the … Continue reading

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