Atul Gawande is a surgeon, public-health researcher, and a New Yorker staff writer. His 2016 commencement address at the California Institute of Technology addressed the current American distrust of science. Continue reading Atul Gawande’s CalTech Commencement Address, June 10, 2016
Readers of this blog know that Bertrand Russell is one of my intellectual heroes. I believe that Russell was the greatest philosopher in the twentieth century and quite possibly the greatest philosopher of the entire Western intellectual tradition. Continue reading Bertrand Russell: The Value of Philosophy
( Note. Readers of this blog know that Will Durant is one of my intellectual heroes.)
William James Durant (1885 – 1981) was an American writer, historian, and philosopher. He is best known for The Story of Civilization, 11 volumes written in collaboration with his wife, Ariel Durant, and published between 1935 and 1975. Continue reading Will Durant: The Value of Philosophy
Almost all media that citizens of the United States are exposed to comes from the same six sources. And when a few of the world’s wealthiest corporations control all of the news and commentary, only limited political perspectives will be disseminated. The United States, according to the 2016 World Press Freedom Report Index of Reporters Without Borders, ranks as only the 41st freest press in the world. (The USA has slipped to #48 in the 2019 rankings.) The US ranks behind Namibia, Surinam, Tonga, and Slovenia and just ahead of Botswana, Niger, Romania, and Haiti.
NOTE: I had an infographic to show this but it kept getting removed.