They Will Rise Again From the Tundra

I was going to write a whole post about my take on free will… but why? I will say nothing that hasn’t been said before in much more worthy fashion by people with philosophical and scientific qualifications that can’t be garnered simply by idly perusing RSS feeds on Saturday afternoon in one’s underwear. So I’m just going to give you a list of articles and essays I’ve read over the past few months that, I think, adequately parse different aspects of the free will debate. (I first heard about Benjamin Libet’s experiments—just Google him, you’ll find them—a few years ago, where that seed languished more or less undeveloped until recently.)

Two things before the list:

1. Based on the current extent of my reading, I fall into the determinist camp these days, and I don’t believe that, given the same conditions, we can choose other than we do.  Even if, as

… Read more

Lethal Injection Chamber*

The following list of articles skews toward the anti-death-penalty persuasion, and does not hit every cogent point, pro or con, regarding capital punishment.  How could it?  But the furor over Troy Davis’ execution the other day—as well as some back-and-forth with fellow Sloth Jockey blogger Vinnie Bergl—has the topic fresh in my head.  I don’t know whether Troy Davis was innocent or guilty; I don’t know whether doubt over his innocence or guilt was a false impression given by the media.  For purposes of the following post, and the questions it asks, Troy Davis’ specific case doesn’t really inform the greater question:  is the death penalty ever justified in a civilized society?

I’m against capital punishment for what some might consider a simplistic reason: that, when doling out an absolute punishment, one innocent killed at the hands of the state is one too many.  I’m also sympathetic … Read more

Baby, You Can Drive My Car

Here’s an interesting one:

The present study experimentally manipulated status by seating the same target model (male and female matched for attractiveness) expressing identical facial expressions and posture in either a ‘high status’ (Silver Bentley Continental GT) or a ‘neutral status’ (Red Ford Fiesta ST) motor-car… …Results showed that the male target model was rated as significantly more attractive on a rating scale of 1-10 when presented to female participants in the high compared to the neutral status context. Males were not influenced by status manipulation, as there was no significant difference between attractiveness ratings for the female seated in the high compared to the neutral condition.

On first glance, this doesn’t seem all that surprising.  The evolutionary conjecture probably goes something like this:  Traditionally, males of the species are responsible for wooing their female counterparts by way of impressive feats, activities that … Read more

Water in the Pill

Pharmacist Scott Gavura reviews a paper titled “Against Homeopathy — A Utilitarian Perspective” from the journal Bioethics about when it might be ethical to use homeopathy in a clinical  setting.

Homeopathy is based on the “theory” that “like cures like.”  In essence, find a substance that produces symptoms similar to those of a cold, and that substance should help to cure the cold itself.  Furthermore, homeopathy states that the more a substance is diluted in water the  more potent it becomes, which is, of course, bunk.  Claims like these (and those of many other homeopathic fantasies) fly in the face of everything we know about basic physics.  (Here is a search for “homeopathy” from Neurologica Blog; Steven Novella has done more writing on the topic than anyone else I know of, and his blogs are a terrific resource for anyone interested in the evolving fight … Read more

The Mammoth Reads series is to be a (hopefully) regular to semi-regular shortlist of (hopefully) interesting things I’ve read recently.  (Hopefully) you’ll click a link or two.

Most of these lists will not have long, ridiculous, impossible-to-read titles like this one, but I figured I would kick this series off in irritating fashion.

You Are a Poor Scientist, Dr. Venkman

Prof. Andrew Gelman counters a few claims from a Weekly Standard editorial by emeritus professor David Rubinstein, formerly of the University of Chicago at Illinois, in which Rubinstein claims that professors are paid too much for their “cushy” jobs.  Rubinstein is of the opinion that the current system—namely tenure track—encourages laziness.  Gelman makes some interesting observations about the function of good salaries and benefits in luring top-notch professors, and seems not to buy Rubinstein’s impression that these are necessarily bad things.  Gelman also suggests that Rubinstein simply might be a bit … Read more