ABC Adi (Tsukuba), Kenneth Amaeshi (Warwick) and Paul Nnodim (MCLA): Revisiting the Rational Choice and Rationality Debate in the Social Sciences: Is Theory Possible Without Rationality? The introduction to Do Economists Make Markets? On the Performativity of Economics. The introduction to Upward Mobility and the Common Good: Toward a Literary History of the Welfare State by Bruce Robbins. A review of Tyler Cowen's Discover Your Inner Economist (and an interview). They've Got Your Number: A review of The Tiger That Isn't: Seeing Through a World of Numbers by Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot and Simplexity: The Simple Rules of a Complex World by Jeffrey Kluger.
From PopMatters, Hey, You Got Your Ghost in My Machine! The body and the machine are born innocent. It’s the soul and the mind that make them dirty and evil. Johann Hari on why he supports liberal eugenics. Blossoming brains: Exactly how mental maturity develops—and the anatomy responsible for its emergence—is being revealed. A review of The British Moralists on Human Nature and the Birth of Secular Ethics by Michael B. Gill. From Secular Web, an article on Darwin's conflict with his wife and God. The gullible age: Richard Dawkins’s book The God Delusion sold a million copies. In a new and hilarious onslaught he pits hard science against astrology, tarot, psychics, homeopathy and other gullibiligy.
From Busted Halo, her are 25 Things Every College Freshman Should Know Before Classes Start. From Campus Progress, the Student Association for Voter Empowerment is trying to get past the "big smiles and empty rhetoric" and turn youth voting into something substantive. Razing West Harlem: Why Columbia's proposed expansion has met resistance. Funding Higher Ed: The Congressional overhaul of federal student aid is a good first step, but true reform of the system will require an effort on the scale of the GI Bill. If colleges and publishers could change the way they do business, they would make a substantial dent in the cost of higher education and provide a real benefit to students.
