online archive

Political theory, ethics, science, economics and academia

From the inaugural issue of Studies in Social Justice, David Harvey (CUNY): Neoliberalism and the City (and an interview); Nancy Fraser (New School): Feminist Politics in an Age of Recognition: A Two-Dimensional Approach to Gender Justice; William Carroll (Victoria): Hegemony and Counter-Hegemony in a Global Field; Michael Reisch (Michigan): Social Justice and Multiculturalism: Persistent Tensions in the History of US Social Welfare and Social Work; and Gary Craig (Hull): Social Justice in a Multicultural Society: Experience from the UK.

From Ars Disputandi, a review of Ethics in Crisis: Interpreting Barth’s Ethics by David Clough and a review of Epistemology as Theology: An Evaluation of Alvin Plantinga’s Religious Epistemology by James Beilby. An excerpt from The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil by Philip Zimbardo. An interview with Joshua Foa Dienstag, author of Pessimism: Philosophy, Ethic, Spirit.

The first chapter from Einstein on Politics: His Private Thoughts and Public Stands on Nationalism, Zionism, War, Peace, and the Bomb. Quantum Scoop: The Holy Grail of particle physics may already have been found. The story of mysterious life-forms that existed nearly 600 million years ago might involve rocks in, of all places, Hingham. A radical idea, to be sure. Then again, the provocative scientist leading a study there is anything but conventional. Michael Ruse reviews The Edge of Revolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism by Michael J. Behe.

From The Intercollegiate Review, Real Men Prove Darwin Wrong (Again): Peter Augustine Lawler reviews "The Human Beast", A Man In Full and I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe, Manliness by Harvey Mansfield, and The Right Darwin: Evolution, Religion, and the Future of Democracy by Carson Holloway; a review of Return to Greatness: How America Lost its Sense of Purpose and What it Needs to Do to Recover It by Alan Wolfe and a review of Look Homeward, America: In Search of Reactionary Radicals and Front-Porch Anarchists by Bill Kauffman.

A review of The Economic Naturalist: In Search of Explanations for Everyday Enigmas by Robert H. Frank. A review of Nature: An Economic History by Geerat J. Vermeij and The Natural Origins of Economics by Margaret Schabas. The first chapter from Lawlessness and Economics: Alternative Modes of Governance by Avinash K. Dixit. An interview with Thomas K. McCraw, author of Prophet of Innovation: Joseph Schumpeter and Creative Destruction.

From The Chronicle, A Grand Unified Theory of Interdisciplinarity: For interdisciplinarity to be more than a buzzword, professors must radically restructure their approach to knowledge, writes Lennard J. Davis; The Scholar in Society: The humanities are not self-sustaining. Humanists must argue for their social value and back up those arguments as convincingly as possible, writes Bruce Robbins; and the AAUP, 92 and Ailing: Mismanagement, declining membership, and a schizophrenic mission threaten the premier faculty association.

You're not earning as much as the guys? If you want to erase that salary gap, ladies, change your major. When Should a Kid Start Kindergarten? Parents, and now states, are trying to work it so that some children are a year older when they enter school. This could lead to better test scores — and more inequality. Boys Gone Mild: When playing and getting hurt become threatened activities in need of adult intervention, it might be time to let go. A note to the forgetful: be thankful you don’t remember everything. It means your brain is working properly.