12:00PM

SEP 7 2007

Intellectuals, economics and science

From Critical Inquiry, Nancy Fraser on Abnormal Justice; Slavoj Zizek on Tolerance as am Ideological Category; an interview with Alain Badiou; and Danny Postel interviews Tzvetan Todorov (and part 2 and part 3). Arthur Danto reviews Richard Rorty's Philosophy as Cultural Politics: Philosophical Papers. From Bookforum, After The Last Intellectual: Twenty years ago, Russell Jacoby’s The Last Intellectuals: American Culture in the Age of Academe mourned the death of the freelance thinker and examined its fresh corpse. But did we misread Jacoby’s autopsy? AC Grayling is worried terrorism threats will be exploited to grind down the West's secular, liberal tradition, and an excerpt from Towards The Light. Did post-Enlightenment philosophers reject the idea of original sin and the view that life is a quest for redemption from it? The introduction to Philosophical Myths of the Fall by Stephen Mulhall. A land where God is absent: A review of A Secular Age by Charles Taylor. 

Francisco J. Gomes (LBS), Laurence J. Kotlikoff (BU) and Luis M. Viceira (Harvard): The Excess Burden of Government Indecision. From The Nation, Robin Blackburn reviews Prophet of Innovation: Joseph Schumpeter and Creative Destruction by Thomas K. McCraw. The preface to Mises: The Last Knight of Liberalism by Jorg Guido Hulsmann. A Master of Theory and Practice: A profile of Harvard macroeconomist Robert Barro.  From Campus Progress, Know Your Right-Wing Speakers: Bryan Caplan: the George Mason economist favors free market biases over legitimate democracy, and has more ears in Washington than you might think. How to work and play a little better: A review of Discover Your Inner Economist by Tyler Cowen. 

From Open Letters Monthly, a review of Present at the Future: From Evolution to Nanotechnology, Candid and Controversial Conversations on Science and Nature by Ira Flatow. A review of The Evolving Brain: The Known and the Unknown by R. Grant Steen. A review of Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain by Maryanne Wolf.  An article on the growing therapeutic science of deep-brain stimulation (DBS). A review of The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature by Steven Pinker. Holy @&%*! Author Steven Pinker thinks we're hardwired to curse. Are humans the only species to have moral feelings? An interview with Frans de Waal. When trying to understand someone's intentions, non-human primates expect others to act rationally by performing the most appropriate action allowed by the environment, according to a new study. Humane league: How to do fewer, better animal experiments.