Life on Mars: The Ethical Implications of Colonizing the Red Planet
It’s a Godawful Small Affair Human expansion into space is at the periphery of our current, scientific knowledge. There is a long and earnest history of proposals for such a…
Posts by tag
Science
19 posts
The Selfish Nature of Human Cooperation
An optimistic anthropological perspective on human nature has emerged in the last two decades: the view that cooperation is the most essential human activity and that conflict, violence, and moral…
Skepticism is Necessary in our Post-Truth Age. Postmodernism is Not
We at Areo recently published a passionate defense of postmodernism by Kenneth Houston, Professor of International Relations at Webster. We did so, despite having published several essays strongly critical of…
Enlightenment Contested
Steven Pinker’s new book is drawing criticism. But is it justified?
“Nothing Human Is Foreign to Me”: On the Nobility of Science and the Humanistic Instinct
Only recently did I realize there was a word for the desire to understand and prevent disease, and, more generally, to help people flourish: humanism.
Are There Any Limits to What Schools Can Achieve?
Toby Young first published this piece with Teach First, which is an organization that works to end education inequality. After publishing the piece, Teach First took it down. Jonathan Dando,…
A Bridge of Solidarity: an Arc of Moral Progress and Scientific Skepticism across Islamic Societies
Since 2006, I have been advocating that people here in Western, secular societies can work productively with activists and liberals in Islamic societies. Specifically, to support movements, and amplify brave voices of reason, science, and skeptical thinking, by Muslims and non-Muslims alike. This includes voices in support of freedom, tolerance and pluralism, led by local actors – including women, and women’s movements. People who finally have an emerging, collective voice, whose reach and resonance can be increasingly amplified by the powers of the internet, YouTube, television, radio and social media. This would primarily be locally owned and bottom-up, not paternalistic or top-down. It would revolve around a love of knowledge, free inquiry, intellectual curiosity and a basic recognition of the value, dignity and worth of the individual human person.
Is Cordelia Fine’s Award from the Royal Society an Escalation of the Culture Wars?
One occasionally hears it said, generally by intelligent people who have turned their brains off for a moment, that science and politics don’t mix, and shouldn’t. This is of course…
Finger Size Does Matter… In Sports
Examine your fingers. Which is longer? Is it the index finger (the finger you use to point with — technically the second digit, or 2D, counting the thumb), or the…
Are Catastrophic Disasters Striking More Often?
No sooner had Hurricane Harvey’s record rains receded from Houston and neighboring cities than the residents of Florida began bracing for a wallop from an even more powerful storm. And…
The Philosophy of Group Differences
Two controversies about the extent and cause of group differences have erupted in the past six months. The first emerged from a Vox article about Charles Murray, race, and IQ.…
If Gifted Children Exist, Does a Meritocracy Still Make Sense?
The lamentable and dangerous myth persists that there is no such thing as innate talent or a gifted child. Whilst we might concede that if you are not born with…
What Science Has to Say About Gender Identity
A few days ago, President Trump announced that transgender individuals would not be allowed to serve in the U.S. Military. This follows a previous Trump reversal of guidelines put in place by President…
My Apostasy from the Church of Critical Theory
In 1997 I earned a Masters degree in psychology from Duquesne University, a Catholic university in Pittsburgh, PA. At the time, Duquesne was one of only a few schools in…
The March for Science Is the Problem, Not the Solution
On the 47th Earth Day, scientists and other concerned citizens marched for science. This march was “the first step of a global movement to defend the vital role science plays…
Gender Trouble: Gender Feminism and the Blank Slate
“There is no reason to assume that gender also ought to remain as two. The presumption of a binary gender system implicitly retains the belief in a mimetic relation of…
Jerry Coyne on Taboos in Science, Skepticism, and the Incompatibility of Faith and Fact
Jerry Coyne is professor emeritus in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago. A prolific scientist and commentator on a wide variety of topics, Dr. Coyne…
Evolutionary Psychology in the Humanities: Shakespeare’s Othello
“We believe that works of art are shaped by our evolved human nature, by culture and by individual experience. We therefore distinguish ourselves from cultural constructivists who effectively give exclusive…