On the difference between a people and a nation 26 May 202426 May 2024 I have a new and unpaid notice on my substack here: https://johnwilkins.substack.com/p/on-the-difference-between-a-people This is me inviting hate, I guess. History Politics
Evolution Trashcan: chaotic remnants 7 Dec 2008 Siris has an interesting piece on the nature of the liberal arts. I loves me some 13th century, I does. Bora objects to Obama’s choices being characterised as “elites” and therefore bad. On the other hand, the term “groupthink” was coined to characterise the elite advisors of the first American… Read More
Evolution Strong reciprocity 22 Sep 2007 On Friday I assessed an essay by a masters student on the evolution of reciprocity and altruism (she cleverly introduced a notion of benevolent behaviour rather than “altruism” in social contexts, to avoid confusion with genetic altruism. Then today my various feeds identified this rather excellent essay (more of a… Read More
History False botanists 1 May 2009 … says Linnaeus: False BOTANISTS proclaim the Laws of the Art before they have learned them: Extol absurd Authors, and are jealous of the excellent ones: Steal from others, producing nothing of their own: Boast much of a little knowledge: Pretend they have discovered a natural Method: Assert the Genera… Read More