Suggested readings, 14 February 2021

Here are some interesting articles I've read over the past week I think are worth checking out.

Joe Humphreys, “Why Covid dissidents need to be understood, not demonised.” 4 Feb, Irish Times.

Interview with Katherine Furman, a philosopher and public policy researcher based at the University of Liverpool: "Lockdown has come with severe economic hardship here. For instance, foodbanks have reported a dramatic increase in their use. This is something social scientists will need to study to properly understand what was going on here, but I think it would be too quick dismiss protesters here as merely being ‘law-breakers’".

Dominic Wilkinson and Jonathan Pugh, “Is it ethical to quarantine people in hotel rooms?” 11 Feb, The Conversation.

"Mandatory hotel quarantine is probably ethically justified, but there are also strong ethical arguments to follow other countries in granting some exemptions to the hefty fee."

Christina Fleischer, “Ten things you didn’t know about Darwin.” 4 Feb, OUP Blog.

Ten little-known facts about the father of evolution.

Jonathan Chait, “Describing a Slur Is Not the Same As Using It.” 8 Feb, New York Magazine.

"It would be one thing to decide that not only is it unacceptable to use a slur but it is also unacceptable to utter or mention in it any form. It is another thing to treat those two different actions as completely indistinguishable."

Karen Stenner and Jessica Stern, “How to Live With Authoritarians.” 11 Feb, Foreign Policy.

"About a third of the population in Western countries is predisposed to authoritarianism."

Richard A. Friedman, “Why Conspiracy Theories Are So Alluring.” 12 Feb, New York Review of Books.

"Some conspiracies are laughable and harmless, like the notion that the earth is flat or that the 1969 moon landing was faked. Others, like the belief that vaccines are harmful, can lead to disease outbreaks -- or the failure to contain a deadly pandemic. And still others, such as the belief that climate change caused by human activity is a hoax, to which 13 percent of US respondents subscribe, threaten the very planet. But there is nothing new, or uniquely American, about conspiracy theories. They have been so widespread throughout history and across different cultures that it invites the question: What makes humans so vulnerable to these often outlandish explanations of everyday experience?"

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Should We Use Neuroenhancement Drugs to Improve Relationships?

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