728 x 90

Blog 3 Columns

  • Is Free Will an Illusion?

    Is Free Will an Illusion?0

    A little more than a year ago, I had the chance to talk with an extremely intelligent and talented scholar, one who had justly won a number of major awards. As we began to talk rather civilly over coffee and tea about our understandings of modern academia, this person said with some exasperation after I told

    READ MORE
  • History Quiz: Kings of Medieval England

    History Quiz: Kings of Medieval England0

          Save this article to favorites

    READ MORE
  • Harvard Scientist Explains what Porn does to your Brain

    Harvard Scientist Explains what Porn does to your Brain3

    As we’ve previously noted, it’s difficult to get consistent answers on the alleged dangers of pornography. Scientific research on the subject varies widely. It’s safe to say that Kevin Majeres, a psychiatrist specializing in cognitive-behavioral therapy and a faculty member of Harvard Medical School, is among those who view pornography as harmful. Writing on the

    READ MORE
  • Brutal Reviews of Shakespeare from the 1600s

    Brutal Reviews of Shakespeare from the 1600s0

    In 1660, Samuel Pepys, a 26-year-old civil servant in London, started writing a diary. He kept it up for about a decade before quitting, and the surviving record offers historians a rich glimpse into daily life in 17th century England. Take this entry from March 1, 1661. Pepys, an avid fan of theater, recorded his

    READ MORE
  • A Warning about Islam from the Last Pope?

    A Warning about Islam from the Last Pope?0

    • July 26, 2016

    A large part of the controversy between Islam and the West boils down to scriptural hermeneutics.   “Scriptural hermeneutics” refers to the lens that a person, group, or religion uses to interpret their respective scriptures. Most Christians, for instance, hold to some sort of theory of “divine inspiration” in regard to how the Bible was

    READ MORE
  • Why Conservatives Can’t Understand Liberals (and Vice Versa)

    Why Conservatives Can’t Understand Liberals (and Vice Versa)0

    It’s probably important to preface any conversation on morality by noting that humans often struggle—mightily—to agree on what morality is. While it’s a thorny topic to define and explain, it would of course be foolish to avoid the pursuit of moral truths for this reason.  Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at the University of Virginia

    READ MORE
  • Students Today: Minds without ‘Furniture’

    Students Today: Minds without ‘Furniture’0

    In my reading on past education philosophy, I have repeatedly encountered the phrase “furniture of the mind.” Perhaps the first instance of it is found in one of the most famous educational documents in history—“The Yale Report of 1828”—where the faculty of Yale College (now University) said the following: “The two great points to be

    READ MORE
  • Moral philosophy is not dead yet

    Moral philosophy is not dead yet0

    Last year, the ethicist Walter-Sinnot Armstrong asked whether philosophers were out of touch with, even contemptuous, of ordinary people and everyday life. The picture he paints isn’t flattering: Philosophers love to complain about bad reasoning. How can those other people commit such silly fallacies? Don’t they see how arbitrary and inconsistent their positions are? Aren’t

    READ MORE
  • Is Capitalism Good for the Poor?

    Is Capitalism Good for the Poor?0

    Critics frequently accuse markets and capitalism of making life worse for the poor. This refrain is certainly common in the halls of left-leaning academia as well as in broader intellectual circles. But like so many other criticisms of capitalism, this one ignores the very real, and very available, facts of history. The biggest gains in

    READ MORE
© Copyright Intellectual Takeout 2024