About Rationally Speaking


Rationally Speaking is a blog maintained by Prof. Massimo Pigliucci, a philosopher at the City University of New York. The blog reflects the Enlightenment figure Marquis de Condorcet's idea of what a public intellectual (yes, we know, that's such a bad word) ought to be: someone who devotes himself to "the tracking down of prejudices in the hiding places where priests, the schools, the government, and all long-established institutions had gathered and protected them." You're welcome. Please notice that the contents of this blog can be reprinted under the standard Creative Commons license.

Saturday, July 04, 2009

Massimo's picks

* A nice history of the "vaccines cause autism" nonsense by "SkepDoc" Harriet Hall. A must read.

* Get ready for the Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism, coming up in New York City on September 12!

* Study shows largest generation gap in the US concerning values since the Vietnam War.

* Chaos is good for your brain...

* Robert Wright has written a book on the evolution of god that is likely to upset a lot of people. So you really need to read it.
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6 comments:

  1. KenGJuly 05, 2009 4:50 AM

    There's a fairly lengthy podcast interview with Robert Wright at http://www.americanfreethought.com/wordpress/ . It's a tad prickly at times.

    I don't intend to read the book. It sounds as if Wright wrote of "higher purpose" or "transcendental reality" (etc.) when he could easily have chosen more banal terms.

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  2. perspicioJuly 06, 2009 1:25 PM

    1st link is broken.

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  3. UnknownJuly 06, 2009 1:32 PM

    Thanks, the link has been fixed.

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  4. Jeffrey EllisJuly 06, 2009 10:10 PM

    like the new theme!

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  5. TeleprompterOctober 01, 2009 2:46 PM

    Massimo, it says that I can't access the full New Scientist article about how chaos drives the brain unless I have a subscription.

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  6. UnknownOctober 01, 2009 2:54 PM

    Yes, I'm afraid they had the full article available for a while (the New Yorker does this also), then they put it in the archive and left the teaser out.

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