Category: Social Science
An Ending: India’s Railway Children
April 16, 2019
Jonah Steinberg— Nobody was tending to the body, which was arrayed on the tracks in at least three recently-separated pieces, its vessels, sinews, and bones protruding, trailing everywhere. The legs… READ MORE
Can Human Beings Understand the Economy?
April 12, 2019
Pascal Boyer— It is in the nature of human beings that they create societies. Philosophers have known and said that much for millennia. These days, scientists can paint a detailed… READ MORE
She Didn’t Start It: Jane Ellen Panton, a Victorian Marie Kondo
April 3, 2019
Sarah Bilston— Marie Kondo seems to be everywhere these days. Home-dwellers across the planet debate whether the objects in their home “spark joy” and throw out those that don’t —… READ MORE
Why Multilingualism Matters – A Q&A With Marek Kohn
March 1, 2019
In a world that has global English and translation technology, it’s easy to assume that the need to use more than one language is diminishing— but it is more important… READ MORE
Understanding Empathy
December 21, 2018
Susan Lanzoni— “Where does the mind stop and the rest of the world begin?” asked the philosophers Andy Clark and David Chalmers in 1998, considering the case of Otto, a… READ MORE
Siberia: Not (always) a freezing wilderness
December 18, 2018
Janet M. Hartley— Why write a history of Siberia? ONE REASON is to address popular preconceptions about Siberia. The first of these is the belief that Siberia is all ice and… READ MORE
Message to Democrats: Please Focus on Jobs and Wages
December 4, 2018
Isabel Sawhill— The midterm elections are over, and the Democrats have taken back the House. They now need an agenda that signals to the electorate what they are for, not… READ MORE
The Prosperous Brain
November 26, 2018
Kelly Lambert, Ph.D.— Although scholars have debated the exact meaning of Thomas Jefferson’s reference to the pursuit of happiness in the Declaration of Independence, the phrase can be traced to… READ MORE
The Origin of Empathy
November 21, 2018
Susan Lanzoni— Is it possible to empathize with lines in an abstract design, with the expansive reach of a tree, the sweep of a bird’s flight, or the imposing rise… READ MORE
A Conversation with Trudier Harris on Bigger: A Literary Life