Nature by Numbers
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Author Archives: Roy Mackay
Joseph Carey Merrick
Quote
‘Tis true my form is something odd,
But blaming me is blaming God;
Could I create myself anew
I would not fail in pleasing you.If I could reach from pole to pole
Or grasp the ocean with a span,
I would be measured by the soul;
The mind’s the standard of the man.
—poem used by Joseph Merrick to end his letters,
adapted from “False Greatness” by Isaac Watts
Institutions of Higher Indoctrination
Indicators … & not just for the NHS
Catalonia’s human towers
The Marvels & Flaws of Intuitive Thinking
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I would say, without hesitation, if somebody were to ask me what are the most important contributions to human life from psychology, I would identify this work as maybe number one, and certainly in the top two or three. In fact, I would identify the work on reasoning as one of the most important things that we’ve learned about anywhere. I argued at Harvard that when we were trying to identify what should any educated person should know in the entire expanse of knowledge, I argued unsuccessfully that the work on human cognition and probabilistic reason should be up there as one of the first things any educated person should know. I am unqualified in my respect for how important this work is. So whatever difference in emphasis is not on whether these are important profound discoveries, which they are, but where to take them, and how ultimately to explain them.
Steven Pinker, Edge Masterclass 2011
Who’s Too Weak to Live With Freedom?
Allowed to be … a normal boy?
Fantasy or reality. How will you tell?
Dr. Charles Negy, Associate Professor, Psychology at the University of Central Florida, sent this e-mail – containing an extra, elementary lesson – to his students; a lesson so basic and of such societal value that it was posted on Reddit.
Hello, Cross-Cultural students, I am writing to express my views on how some of you have conducted yourself in this university course you are taking with me. It is not uncommon for some-to-many American students, who typically, are first-generation college students, to not fully understand, and maybe not even appreciate the purpose of a university. Some students erroneously believe a university is just an extension of high school, where students are spoon-fed “soft” topics and dilemmas to confront, regurgitate the “right” answers on exams (right answers as deemed by the instructor or a textbook), and then move on to the next course.
Roy Mackay 