American Exceptionalism
American exceptionalism is a phrase that, until recently, was rarely heard outside the confines of think tanks, opinion journals and university history departments.
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Sociology
CBC: How to Think About Science
Via Open Culture a radio series by CBC Ideas on science (and the history and philosophy of science): If science is neither cookery, nor angelic virtuosity, then what is it? Modern societies have tended to take science for granted as a way of knowing, ordering and controlling the world. Everything …
Slavoj Žižek: The Monstrosity of Christ
Philosopher Slavoj Žižek discusses his book, The Monstrosity of Christ: Paradox or Dialectic?, and explains how the Christian concept of the “toxic neighbor” impacts political, economic, sexual, and cultural thought. In addition there’s a lecture on YouTube he gave at Boston University for The Institute for Human Sciences in 2007: …
Nicholas Carr – What’s the Internet Doing to Our Brains?
Via the Commonwealth Club: Nicholas Carr, Author of The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains in conversation with Peter Norvig, Director of Research, Google “Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet …
Edge: The New Science of Morality
An Edge Conference featuring Roy Baumeister, Paul Bloom, Joshua D. Greene, Jonathan Haidt, Sam Harris, Marc D. Hauser, Josua Knobe, Elizabeth Phelps and David Pizarro was held July 20-22, 2010. Edge has made a number of videos and texts available from this conference. Read the introduction to the conference by …
RSA: Slavoj Žižek – First as Tragedy, Then as Farce
Via The RSA: Slavoj Žižek, one of the worlds most influential living philosophers, visits the RSA to discuss capitalism’s flawed priorities and investigates the surprising ethical implications of charitable giving. A talk based on his book of the same title. Animated: Talk: Hegel remarks somewhere that all facts and personages …
TED: Hans Rosling on global population growth, HIV, Asia, poverty
With the drama and urgency of a sportscaster, statistics guru Hans Rosling uses an amazing new presentation tool, Gapminder, to debunk several myths about world development. Rosling is professor of international health at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, and founder of Gapminder, a nonprofit that brings vital global data to life.
The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories
Mind Hacks highlighted an interesting article on the psychology (and sociology) of conspiracy theories. Updated with more links.