Scientia Salon is a webzine about science and philosophy. There is a very active conversation occurring there around these two BIG topics. Back in March, Massimo Pigliucci (founder and editor of the site) posted a “manifesto for 21st Century intellectualism. Here is a little taste . . . That problem, to put it plainly, is … Read more
From Nature back in July, 2014, this is a call for more interdisciplinary sharing between neuroscientists and counselors/psychologists. There is often, in my experience, very little cross-pollination of ideas between the objective science and the interpersonal/intersubjective space of treatment. Reference:Nature 511, 287–289 (17 July 2014)doi:10.1038/511287a Psychological treatments: A call for mental-health science Emily A. Holmes, … Read more
In this episode of Larry King Live, Gus Holwerda (film maker) Dr. Lawrence Krauss (American theoretical physicist) – who created the film The Unbelievers – were joined by Michael Beckwith (American new thought minister & author), Christian actor David A. R. White, and Jay Bakker (pastor, speaker and author). Nothing new here – but it’s … Read more
How interesting to see Forbes run a story on the way Big Pharma is manipulating research to support their drugs, but every effort to expose this dangerous and possibly criminal behavior on the part of these mega-companies is welcome. How Manufacturer-Funded Research Compromises Patient Care Robert Pearl, M.D.7/24/2014 To improve patient care, doctors rely on … Read more
This is so pathetic – the National Review thinks we have a “nerd problem.” Is it not enough to support a creationism museum, a publicly funded Noah’s Ark theme park ($43 million dollars worth of tax breaks in Kentucky, while the state cuts social programs and education), and to have several states trying to eradicate … Read more
Is consciousness some ineffable force that can never be understood by science, or is it completely within our ability to one day understand and perhaps even replicate? Paller and Suzuki argue in a new paper that we need more and better research, but that an understanding of consciousness is fully within our reach. Unfortunately, the … Read more
This is a 10-part series from The Open University, featuring Professor Russell Stannard exploring the BIG questions – What is consciousness? What is free will? What caused the Big Bang? What is time? Each “episode” is relatively short, between 7 and 14 minutes, so these are bite size examinations of the big questions. The Boundaries … Read more
For all of recorded history, billions of years, the blueprint of life has been written with just four letters — adenine (A), thymine (T), cytosine (C) and guanine (G), the DNA subunits contained in all organisms. Now that has changed. Scientists at Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, have identified a pair of bases, … Read more
Buddhism, Mind, and Cognitive Science Conference, April 25-26, 2014, UC Berkeley This conference is dedicated to the exploration of the methodological underpinnings of the current encounter between Buddhism and cognitive science. Among the presenters and panelists are: Dan Arnold (Philosophy of Religion, University of Chicago) Lawrence Barsalou (Psychology, Emory University) Christian Coseru (Philosophy, College of … Read more
A little over a week ago, I posted the first section of an article I am writing on the topic of Big Neuro and how it has taken over nearly all of the Federal research dollars in psychology. Based on that, you all know how I feel about the topic. This brief overview of the … Read more