Jan. 1, 2011 | 'The best ideas prevail. Well, maybe not. We''re hard-wired to reject evidence and views that contradict our beliefs - these days, more than ever'... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | 'Ideas, fads, hoaxes: Ours is the age of the meme, in which information spreads faster and farther than ever before. But who''s in charge, us or our memes?'... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Cultural looting reached its apex under the Nazis, who were efficient but careless. What kind of idiot hangs a Leonardo painting above a radiator?... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | The Bible brims with contradictions, says Timothy Beal, but no matter: The Good Book is best read as a catalog of questions, not answers... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Selfless behavior has long baffled evolutionary theorists. But E.O. Wilson now claims that he can explain altruism. The response has not been kind... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Pity modern man. College-graduation rates, sperm counts, and testosterone levels are all down. "Emasculation is a national blood sport" ... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Gore Vidal advised Christopher Hitchens never to miss a chance to have sex or to appear on television. Hitchens took the advice to heart... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | 'Francis Fukuyama says that his break with neoconservatism is "about ideas and policies," but it''s become personal. Old friends won''t talk to him'... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | For an economist like Peter Orszag, two career paths beckon: public intellectual or Wall Street mandarin; Stiglitzism or Rubinism... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Fed up with being called an "imperialist scumbag," Niall Ferguson offers this warning: "Never underestimate the irate Professor Ferguson"... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Over-stressed parents, Bryan Caplan has some advice: Stop trying so hard. Have more kids. Pay less attention to them... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | 'A.C. Grayling is donnish, leonine, and without self-doubt: "My wife gave me a card that says, ''I used to be an atheist until I realized I am God''"'... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Sidney Lumet, director of more than 40 films, including 12 Angry Men, Serpico, and Network, is dead at the age of 86... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | 'Maybe a rising tide does lift all boats. Or maybe you''re a heartless crank for thinking so. Joseph Stiglitz has a view on that'... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Chaos of war? Maybe not. Insurgent attacks in Afghanistan might conform to a mathematical pattern. If violence can be forecast, can it be averted?... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | 'We''ve been shamed, nudged, and educated, but nothing seems to work: We''re still fat. Matt Ridley has an idea: healthy-living vouchers'... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | The herculean new National Museum of China has opened with an exhibit on the European Enlightenment. Can museums shape social attitudes?... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | 'About Salvador DalÃ, Orwell believed two things: "A good draughtsman and a disgusting human being." Unfair? Consider DalÃ''s views on Jews'... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Drugs, sex, political corruption: David Grann reveals the ruthless world of Guatemalan politics and unravels a labyrinthine murder mystery... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Semiotics, deconstruction, New Criticism, blah, blah, blah. Poetry is in crisis, says Joseph Wood, and careless theorizing is to blame... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | 'Dan Savage fancies himself the world''s smuttiest advice columnist. Is he also America''s foremost ethicist?'... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Can science explain the soul? Well, a preternaturally self-assured scientist like Nicholas Humphrey can try... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | No bright line necessarily marks the moment when a person becomes a corpse. So how dead is dead enough to become an organ donor?... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | Will the Arab Spring falter? Or will revolutionary fervor sweep away the authoritarian status quo? Pick your analogy: 1989 or 1848... more »
Jan. 1, 2011 | 'For Richard Dawkins, life is poetic and beautiful because it''s explicable. As for his critics, well, they''re "deluded to the point of perversity"'... more »