online archive
12:45PM
AUG 24 2007
Philosophy and social science, human nature and education
From Sign and Sight, the time for philosophising is over": Philosopher Ernst Tugendhat on Heidegger, his students' trauma and the rest. A review of The Tasks of Philosophy: Selected Essays, Volume 1 and Ethics and Politics: Selected Essays, Volume 2 by Alasdair MacIntyre. A review of Knowledge and Inquiry: Essays on the Pragmatism of Isaac Levi. A review of IQ and the Wealth of Nations by Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen. Enjoyable nonsense? Historical determinist theories provide a wonderful narrative, but are they any more than entertaining holiday reading?
The Enthusiast: Harvard biologist David Sinclair claims he can extend life span and treat diseases of aging. A review of The Evolving Brain: The Known and the Unknown by R. Grant Steen. A review of The Primacy of the Subjective: Foundations for a Unified Theory of Mind and Language by Nicholas Georgalis. He may be right. On the mystery of human consciousness: Philosophers and natural scientists regularly dismiss consciousness as irrelevant. However, even its critics agree that consciousness is less a problem than a mystery. One way into the mystery is through an understanding of autism. Research finds the area responsible for self-control in the human brain. A review of Philosophical Counselling and the Unconscious.
From Orion, Unplugged Schools: Education can ameliorate, or exacerbate, society's ills. Which will it be? A review of A Class Apart: Prodigies, Pressure, and Passion Inside One of America's Best High Schools by Alec Klein. When loving parents choose segregation: Schools and well-intentioned administrators can try to integrate all they want, but such efforts aren’t just being undermined by the courts. The real obstacle is much closer to home. A review of Sugarcane Academy: How a New Orleans Teacher and His Storm-Struck Students Created a School To Remember by Michael Tisserand. Notes on a scandal: Restless Virgins: Love, Sex, and Survival at a New England Prep School, a book on Milton Academy, offers shocking insight into teens and sex.
