“The Evolution of Fairness”— New Study Generates Media Attention
In the March 19, 2010 issue of Science, a group of anthropologists, economists and psychologists published a study titled “Markets, Religion, Community Size, and the Evolution of Fairness and...
View ArticleWhat Does New Study on Markets-Religion and Evolution of Fairness Prove?
A few days ago, I posted about a new study that has generated major media attention and continues to do so. I deferred my own review until I could examine the article (and supporting materials) —...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Contra Deus ex Machina
In Ars Poetica (“The Art of Poetry”), the great Roman lyricist Horace counsels against using gods to resolve thorny plots. The deus ex machina is simply too tidy and unbelievable. When gods swoop in to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Misfires of Moral Psychology
Over the past decade there has been a sea change in the way we assess moral reasoning, judgment, and behavior. The old view, developed and championed largely by introspective philosophers, was that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Durkheim & de Waal on Human Sociality
I’ve just finished a close study of Emile Durkheim’s Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (1912) and concluded that its entire premise is based on ignorance. Durkheim, in other words, is mystified...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Testing Durkheim
When Emile Durkheim proclaimed, in Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912), that collective rituals functioned to maintain the cohesion of groups or society, it was as if God had spoken. It did not...
View Article