Peggy Orenstein is an interesting writer. She would probably call herself both a liberal and a feminist, but above all, she appears to be moderate and inclined to common sense—though her writing is no less incisive for that. Quite the contrary. Above all, she is skeptical and observant—traits that imbue her work with unpredictability and [...]
In “Part I: The Problem of Agency,” I showed that our normative concepts (roughly, noncausal requirement, purpose, value, and meaning) are intimately related conceptually to one another and to the notion of agency. Next, I showed that the concept of normative agency, thus defined, is properly applicable to even the most primitive forms of life—even [...]
1. Citogenesis Did you ever wonder where all the dubious factoids you run across come from originally? A web site called xkcd.com has the answer. The site contains witty comic strips, many of them science- and math-oriented, commenting satirically on all topics imaginable. This particular strip is called “Citogenesis.” Get it? Not cyto- . . [...]
Is there a third way between Darwinian normative nihilism and theism? In other words, is there a different way to deal with the fact that purpose, value, and meaning seem to have a very real grip on our hearts and minds, besides dismissing them as an illusion, with the Darwinist, or appealing to God as their guarantor, [...]
They say there are no atheists in foxholes. I don’t know about that, but I believe I have discovered a related law of nature: There are no Darwinists around dinner tables. I made this discovery when I observed a curious phenomenon. Some of the responses to my critiques of Darwininian reductionism in this space were [...]
In “The traditional atheist/agnostic is indispensable to the intellectual world—Part I” ( The Best Schools, December 18, 2011), I made the point that “It’s not possible to evaluate what we believe except by hearing from a literate person who doesn’t believe it.” Note the emphasis on “literate.” There is a sharp contrast between the anger-ridden [...]
Matthias Grünewald, The Concert of the Angels and The Nativity, Isenheim Altarpiece, 1510–1515, Oil on panel, Musée d’Unterlinden, Colmar, France * * * Arcangelo Corelli, Concerto Grosso No. 8 in G Minor, “Fatto per la notte di Natale,” Op. 6, first published posthumously in 1714 * * * Merry Christmas to all.
We do not stop often enough to marvel at what a remarkable species we are. Tomorrow is Christmas, so I couldn’t ask for a better occasion to do just that. This thought was prompted in me earlier this week, when I had to call 911 for a close friend. (She is doing fine now.) In [...]
“You shouldn’t always believe what you read” is good advice under any circumstances. But when the subject is scientific pronouncements about human nature, you should double your skepticism. And when certain popular science writers are doing the reporting, multiply it by a factor of ten. In this week’s Science Times, prolific science journalist Nicholas Wade—the [...]
A new riff on The Scarlet Letter has just been published. The novel is called When She Woke, and the author is named Hilary Jordan. The biggest difference between the new story and the one we all remember from high school (showing my age there, I’m afraid) is that Hawthorne grounded his tale in a real [...]