The Mind Is A Neural Computer

One Of My Favourite Kinds Of Movie Is The American Picaresque, In Which The Characters Make Their Way Across The Country, Learning About Life Against The Gorgeous Backdrops Of That Vast Land.

In The Past Two Decades Anthropologists Have Gathered Data On Life And Death In Pre-state Societies Rather Than Accepting The Warm And Fuzzy Stereotypes. What Did They Find? In A Nutshell: Hobbes Was Right, Rousseau Was Wrong.

The Indispensability Of Reason Does Not Imply That Individual People Are Always Rational Or Are Unswayed By Passion And Illusion. It Only Means That People Are Capable Of Reason, And That A Community Of People Who Choose To Perfect This Faculty And To Exercise It Openly And Fairly Can Collectively Reason Their Way To Sounder Conclusions In The Long Run. As Lincoln Observed, You Can Fool All Of The People Some Of The Time, And You Can Fool Some Of The People All Of The Time, But You Can't Fool All Of The People All Of The Time.

Disgust Is Intuitive Microbiology

Feminism As A Movement For Political And Social Equity Is Important, But Feminism As An Academic Clique Committed To Eccentric Doctrines About Human Nature Is Not. Eliminating Discrimination Against Women Is Important, But Believing That Women And Men Are Born With Indistinguishable Minds Is Not. Freedom Of Choice Is Important, But Ensuring That Women Make Up Exactly 50 Percent Of All Professions Is Not. And Eliminating Sexual Assaults Is Important, But Advancing The Theory That Rapists Are Doing Their Part In A Vast Male Conspiracy Is Not.