“Recent research suggests that rituals may be more rational than they appear. Why? Because even simple rituals can be extremely effective. … What’s more, rituals appear to benefit even people who claim not to believe that rituals work.”
Category: ideas
Analogies Aren’t Just SAT Questions; They’re Fundamental To The Way We Think
“Is analogy the core of cognition? Yes. Is analogy irrational, subjective and concrete? Yes indeed, but it is also the underpinning of rationality, objectivity and abstraction. Analogy is not a rare luxury of thought or an exotic, remote corner of cognition. Analogy is the entire transport system of thought, including motorways, roads and trails.”
When Everyone Has This Internet, Is This A Good Thing?
Facts are essential to a free and informed society, but when every answer is but a touch or click away, the cultural argument is, ‘How could it not foster a generation and culture of laziness?’
The Limitations Of Empathy
“Empathy has some unfortunate features – it is parochial, narrow-minded, and innumerate. We’re often at our best when we’re smart enough not to rely on it.”
On The Verge Of A Golden Age Of Education
“In the last 20-30 years, cognitive scientists and neuroscientists have furthered our understanding, gaining a more literal “in-sight” into the mind’s inner workings, and through this, they have just begun to test, measure, expand, and further stimulate the work of the artists and philosophers before them.”
Time To Tell Off The Foodies: Being A Mom Is Not About Cooking
“Everywhere — in commercials, films, books — I find the conflation of parental love and cooking. Somehow, we’ve come to believe that mothering can be smeared onto a sandwich, nurturing tucked between the wings of a garlicky roasted chicken.”
What Happens When Publishers Invest In Long Online Stories?
Basically? Readers like longform stories so much that they’ll crash publishers’ servers with their love (and attention).
Insects: Where Humans Got Rhythm And Music (Wait, What?)
“At what point does noise become music, and vice versa? If you take insect noises and break them down to their smallest component parts, and then recombine the bits into music, is it still bug music?”
Can Neuroscience Really Say Something About Humanities?
“Neurohumanities has been positioned as a savior of today’s liberal arts. The Times is able to ask “Can ‘Neuro Lit Crit’ Save the Humanities?” because of the assumption that literary study has descended into cultural irrelevance. Neurohumanities, then, is an attempt to provide the supposedly loosey-goosey art and lit crowds with the metal spines of hard science.”
When Animals Rescue Animals
“Tragedies like the Boston Marathon bombings remind us how important first responders are. Animals come to the rescue of members of their own species too. Dolphins, for example, form ‘living rafts’ to keep ill or injured dolphins buoyant.”