Wonder is a nice emotional supplement to education, perhaps, but from a strictly pedagogical perspective it hardly seems necessary. That is wrong. In fact, wonder epitomises what education is about: opening up the world. Any educators interested in – or devoted to – opening up the world to their students should consider wonder essential to […]
Neuroscience has much to learn from Hume’s philosophy of emotions
we can’t tell ourselves whom to fall in love with – means that our wrestling with the passions is what brings the self into being. Habits consolidate what control we can have of our passions. Hume gives habit pride of place in his moral accounting, but the key here is to continually assess whether we […]
The End of Family Values
Neoliberalism rests on the myth that “good” families can provide for their own without public support. COVID-19 may finally change all that. the conditions for the squeeze that families are currently experiencing were set long before the pandemic hit U.S. shores. The seeming impossibility of the current situation for American families is not an unfortunate […]
The Climate Case for a Jobs Guarantee
Is there enough work for everyone? Kim Stanley Robinson on the future of planetary employment. Never make the mistake of thinking “efficient” is synonymous with “good” Kim Stanley Robinson Say it’s the very near future, and you’re a worker put out of work in the declining oil industry. You’re highly educated, and you’ve been well-compensated, […]
The Tragedy of Costs and Benefits
In the fight against COVID-19, weighing costs and benefits is indispensable for moral clarity. At the same time, we must not forget its limits. One way that measurement can distort the choice is by virtue of an excessive focus on what is easily measurable instead of what ought to be measured. Many graphs, for example, […]