online archive
12:00PM
JUL 2 2007
Legal theory, philosophy, economics and science
Louis J. Sirico Jr. (Villanova): Original Intent in the First Congress. Michael Cahill (Brooklyn): Retributive Justice in the Real World. A new study shows how often juries get it wrong. A review of Forgiveness, Mercy, and Clemency; a review of The Migration of Constitutional Ideas; a review of Law in Times of Crisis: Emergency Powers in Theory and Practice by Oren Gross and Fionnuala Ní Aoláin; and a review of Judge and Jury: American Tort Law on Trial by Eric Helland and Alexander Tabarrok.
From Salon, an interview with Simon Blackburn, author of Plato's Republic: A Biography. A look at how Bertrand Russell's interpretation of Rousseau in The History of Western Philosophy is both unfair and inaccurate and misrepresents Rousseau's historical legacy. From Harvard Magazine, an anti-utopian, old-school scholar of international relations, Stanley Hoffmann grasps “the foreignness of foreigners”; a review of Prophet of Innovation: Joseph Schumpeter and Creative Destruction by Thomas K. McCraw; and Debtor Nation: The rising risks of the American Dream, on a borrowed dime. Are the wrong people voting? Louis Menand reviews The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Politics by Bryan Caplan.
From Zeek, an essay on free will and the last gasp of the unenlightened mind; and a look inside the German brain: An English neurosurgeon abroad. Master of creation? Nobel prize-winning scientist Gerald Edelman says he has discovered how human souls are made. It is an epic story of struggle and triumph in the womb - and it could end the worldwide rift over human-embryo experiments. A review of Everything Conceivable: How Assisted Reproduction is Changing Men, Women and the World by Liza Mundy. Why can't you buy a kidney to save your life? A growing legal movement to recognize a new fundamental right — medical self-defense — could bring jarring social changes. A Challenge to Gene Theory, a Tougher Look at Biotech: The $73.5 billion global biotech business may soon have to grapple with a discovery that calls into question the scientific principles on which it was founded.
From Commentary, Leon Kass on Science, Religion, and the Human Future, with responses by Steven Pinker and others. Richard Dawkins reviews The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism by Michael J. Behe. The Final Days: A growing community of amateur scholars believe that the world as we know it will come to an end in 2012, as prophesied by the ancient Maya. Is the New Age apocalypse coming round at last? The new age of ignorance: We take our young children to science museums, then as they get older we stop. In spite of threats like global warming and avian flu, most adults have very little understanding of how the world works. So, 50 years on from CP Snow's famous "Two Cultures" essay, is the old divide between arts and sciences deeper than ever? And a celebrity panel answers some basic scientific questions.
