LanQuote:Is this style of breadth vs. detailed proof a significant problem? Why?because "exceptional claims require exceptional evidence". Also because, "If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit". A 60+ page bibliography means absolutely nothing if the ...

There are too many excellent suggestions for a poll of five. Lets do two rounds - the first 5 each a list of five, and then the five from the selected list

Little bitty excerpt:People who hope that a ban on biological explanations might restore personal responsibility are in for the bitterest disappointment of all. The most risible pretexts for bad behavior in recent decades have come not form biological determinism but from environmental determinism: ...

Christopher Wanjek's book, Bad Medicine, is published by John Wiley & Sons, priced

Elaine Morgan, The Descent of WomanEstablished irrefutably the equal role of women in human evolution. It created a worldwide furor and became a rallying point for women everywhere. Its influence has been profound and lasting-on the terminology used by students of prehistoric anthropology, on the th...

I love being asked deep questions like, "what is your philosophy of life", until I actually try to answer. I think the work of putting one's philosophy (or anything else one cares about) into words, hopefully intelligible by another, is an excellent way to clarify ideas for one's self. On ...

"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and bad people doing bad things. But for good people to do bad things, that takes religion." Nobel laureate Stephen Weinberg (1933-)

JohnnyQuote:Might be kind of hard to get her as a chat guest, though.Why?

Pinker, Blank Slate references GGS. I'm also reading a collection of essays by Barbara Kingsolver, and GGS is at the top of her "suggested reading" list. After Blank Slate I only have four more books to go. . . wait, make that three, since one is fiction. I guess Diamond has to be worked i...

GregFlQuote:HOWEVER, when he claims that nature is on a quest, doesn't he assign an intellect to nature? If not, what is the source of the direction of nature?this is exactly the problem I have with the whole enterprise, said better than I have been able to say itQuote:"Outside of a dog, a book...