Jay Caspian Kang’s life story is both extraordinary and somewhat normal for families like his. That’s kind of the point. His parents’ family had roots in North Korea, although they fled to the South in the leadup and aftermath of what is known in America as the ‘Korean War.’ Upon getting married, and for very… Continue reading The Loneliest Americans
Tag: Book Review
Science Fictions: How Fraud, Bias, Negligence and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth
In Science Fictions, psychologist Stuart Ritchie explores how the scientific enterprise systematically goes awry, and what can be done to right the ship. The book is focused on, essentially, the inverse of the problem that Heterodox Academy was created to solve. The key problem with science today, as Ritchie sees it, is not that there… Continue reading Science Fictions: How Fraud, Bias, Negligence and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth
The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous
American liberals often charge that Christians seem unusually preoccupied (even obsessed) with sex and sexuality, and have a bunch of strange hang-ups about marriage and family structure. Conservatives, meanwhile, argue that the “traditional family” lies at the core of Western Civilization, and that weakening foundational norms around sex, marriage, and child-rearing would likely have destabilizing… Continue reading The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous
The Sacred Project of American Sociology
What is sociology “about?” According to the American Sociological Association (ASA), it is: “The study of society, a social science involving the study of the social lives of people, groups and societies; the study of our behavior as social beings, covering everything from the analysis of short contacts between anonymous individuals on the street to… Continue reading The Sacred Project of American Sociology
The Crisis of Expertise
There has been a lot of talk in recent years about the “war on science” or the so-called “death of expertise.” However, according to the General Social Survey, there has been no radical decrease with respect to public trust in the scientific community per se. In fact, contemporary Americans have more trust in the scientific… Continue reading The Crisis of Expertise
Refashioning Futures: Criticism after Postcoloniality
“Political discussion possesses a character fundamentally different from academic discussion. It seeks not to be in the right, but also to demolish the basis of its opponents social and intellectual existence… Political conflict, since it is from the very beginning a rationalized form of the struggle for social predominance, attacks the social status of the… Continue reading Refashioning Futures: Criticism after Postcoloniality