2012-13 Speaker Series. Mercer's Undergraduate Constitution Day Observance, September 17, 2012 Dr. Colleen Sheehan, Professor of Political Science at Villanova University "James Madison on Citizenship and Statesmanship" This event was made possible through the generous support of the Jack Miller Center for Teaching America's Principles and History The A.V. The Moral and Political Philosophy of Adam Smith April 3-4, 2013 April 3 Opening Lecture Ryan Hanley, Marquette University Video of Lecture April 4 Student Panel Brandon Brock, Jackson Brown, Connor Cosenza, Ronnie Davis First Faculty Panel Jennifer Baker, College of Charleston Scott Beaulier, Troy University Art Carden, Samford University Second Faculty Panel Joseph Knippenberg, Oglethorpe University Eduardo Velasquez, Washington and Lee University Stuart Warner, Roosevelt University Closing Lecture Douglas Den Uyl, Liberty Fund Video of Lecture. Home - FREAKONOMICS EXPERIMENTS.
Torture Logic. The Stone is a forum for contemporary philosophers and other thinkers on issues both timely and timeless. The Stone’s weekly briefing of notable philosophy-related issues and ideas from around the Web. The intense and ongoing national debate on torture was stoked recently by Kathryn Bigelow’s film “Zero Dark Thirty.” In an essay at The Nation, Samuel Moyn uses the film as a jumping off point to discuss contemporary thinking on the subject. Against popular accounts, such as that of The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer, Moyn points out that torture, sadly, is not a new practice for the United States government. Against this backdrop, Moyn considers the extraordinary work and career of the literary theorist Elaine Scarry, whose landmark 1985 work “The Body in Pain” used Amnesty’s published reports to produce what is still seen by many as a definitive study of the subject of torture.
Are You My Mother? Also: Do we need “atheist temples?” Kathleen Higgins interviewed at 3AM. The Math Behind the Beauty. By M. Bourne Jessica Simpson What has mathematics got to do with beauty? Actually, a lot. Physical attraction depends on ratio. Our attraction to another person's body increases if that body is symmetrical and in proportion. Scientists believe that we perceive proportional bodies to be more healthy. Leonardo da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man", showing the golden ratio in body dimensions Leonardo da Vinci's drawings of the human body emphasised its proportion. (foot to navel) : (navel to head) Similarly, buildings are more attractive if the proportions used follow the Golden Ratio. Golden Ratio The Golden Ratio (or "Golden Section") is based on Fibonacci Numbers, where every number in the sequence (after the second) is the sum of the previous 2 numbers: We will see (below) how the Fibonnaci Numbers lead to the Golden Ratio: Physical Beauty Why do many people feel that Jessica Simpson is beautiful?
This mask of the human face is based on the Golden Ratio. Her beauty is mathematical! Choose mask: Save typing! Facial Beauty. New working paper: Mirror neurons, Adam Smith, and sympathy. Lynne Kiesling Mirror neurons have captivated my attention for the past year. Think about the last time you were out walking around and smiling, and you noticed that others who saw you started smiling themselves (this happens to me all the time, is that strange?). Even that simple unconscious mimicry is triggered by our brain’s mirror neuron network. So, too, is your reaction when you watch someone drink a beer; even if you do not drink it yourself but only observe someone who is taking a drink, the same neural network activates in both your brain and in the brain of the person you are observing.
The mirror neuron system is a highly distributed, complex neural network, located in several regions of the brain and differentially active depending on the nature of the action undertaken or observed. How is this research relevant to economics? My answer is yes. Like this: Like Loading... The Darwinian Biology of Adam Smith's Reflective Liberal Sentimentalism. For almost 35 years, I have been thinking about how Darwinian biology might apply to the history of political philosophy. My question has been, Does that biological science support some traditions of political thought over others?
From the beginning, I have been inclined to think that Darwinian biology tends to favor Aristotle's empiricist naturalism rather than Plato's transcendentalist rationalism. Aristotle was a biologist. And although his biology is not evolutionist, much of what he says about the biological roots of human morality and politics is confirmed by modern Darwinian biology. By contrast, Plato's rationalism tends to disparage the biological nature of human beings in assuming that human excellence requires pure reason to rule over the passions and appetites of the body. Aristotle was also a theorist of rhetoric, who defended the rhetorical character of moral and political judgment against Plato's rationalist denigration of rhetoric as irrational manipulation.
The World We Design- Charles Duhigg Zeitgeist Americas 2012.