Dlittle30

LATEST ARTICLES ( 893 )

• Nuclear Power Plant Siting Decisions

  

  Readers may be skeptical about the practical importance of the topic of nuclear power plant siting decisions, since very few new nuclear plants have been... Read more

  Posted on 25 March 2019 SOCIETY

• Philosophy of Technology?

  

  Is there such a thing as “philosophy of technology”? Is there a “philosophy of cooking” or a “philosophy of architecture”? All of these are practical... Read more

  Posted on 21 March 2019 SOCIETY

• Conflicts of Interest

  

  The possibility or likelihood of conflict of interest is present in virtually all professions and occupations. We expect a researcher, a physician, or a... Read more

  Posted on 12 March 2019 SOCIETY

• The Morandi Bridge Collapse and Regulatory Capture

  

  Lower image: Eugenio Ceroni and Luca Cozzi, Ponte Morandi - Autopsia di una strageA recurring topic in Understanding Society is the question of the... Read more

  Posted on 06 March 2019 SOCIETY

• Skilled Bodily Capacities

  When philosophers think of action they generally have in mind a combination of intentionality and simple motor movements. "John flips the switch to turn on the... Read more

  Posted on 01 March 2019 SOCIETY

• Bodily Cognition

  

  Traditional cognitive science has been largely organized around the idea of the brain as a computing device and cognitive systems as functionally organized... Read more

  Posted on 23 February 2019 SOCIETY

• Marx's Ideas About Government

  

  Marx had something of a theory of politics and somewhat less of a theory of government. The slogan “the capitalist state serves as the managing committee of... Read more

  Posted on 20 February 2019 SOCIETY

• Is the Xerox Corporation Supervenient?

  

  Supervenience is the view that the properties of some composite entity B are wholly fixed by the properties and relations of the items A of which it is... Read more

  Posted on 18 February 2019 SOCIETY

• Deficiencies in Practical Rationality in Organizations

  

  Suppose we are willing to take seriously the idea that organizations possess a kind of intentionally -- beliefs, goals, and purposive actions -- and suppose tha... Read more

  Posted on 25 January 2019 SOCIETY

• The Place for Thick Theories of the Actor in Philosophy

  

  image: Bruegel, The Dutch Proverbs (1559)When philosophers of the social sciences take seriously the importance of individual action within the social realm,... Read more

  Posted on 19 January 2019 SOCIETY

• The Research University

  

  Where do new ideas, new technologies, and new ways of thinking about the world come from in a modern society? Since World War II the answer to this question... Read more

  Posted on 09 January 2019 SOCIETY

• The Mind of Government

  

  We often speak of government as if it has intentions, beliefs, fears, plans, and phobias. This sounds a lot like a mind. But this impression is fundamentally... Read more

  Posted on 14 December 2018 SOCIETY

• Is Corruption a Social Thing?

  

  When we discuss the ontology of various aspects of the social world, we are often thinking of such things as institutions, organizations, social networks,... Read more

  Posted on 03 December 2018 SOCIETY

• Exercising Government's Will

  

  Since the beginning of the industrial age the topic of regulation of private activity for the public good has been essential for the health and safety of the... Read more

  Posted on 01 December 2018 SOCIETY

• Modeling the Social

  

  One of the most interesting authorities on social models and simulations is Scott Page. This month he published a major book on this topic, The Model Thinker:... Read more

  Posted on 01 December 2018 SOCIETY

• Eleven Years of Understanding Society

  

  This month marks the end of the eleventh year of publication of Understanding Society. Thanks to all the readers and visitors who have made the blog so... Read more

  Posted on 21 November 2018 SOCIETY

• Sexual Harassment in Academic Contexts

  

  Sexual harassment of women in academic settings is regrettably common and pervasive, and its consequences are grave. At the same time, it is a remarkably... Read more

  Posted on 23 October 2018 SOCIETY

• System Effects

  

  Quite a few posts here have focused on the question of emergence in social ontology, the idea that there are causal processes and powers at work at the level... Read more

  Posted on 21 October 2018 SOCIETY

• Social Mobility Disaggregated

  

  There is a new exciting and valuable contribution from the research group around Raj Chetty, Nathan Hendren, and John Friedman, this time on the topic of... Read more

  Posted on 05 October 2018 SOCIETY

• Emotions as Neurophysiological Constructs

  

  Are emotions real? Are they hardwired to our physiology? Are they pre-cognitive and purely affective? Was Darwin right in speculating that facial expressions ar... Read more

  Posted on 03 October 2018 SOCIETY