Now that the second book is safely out of my hands, I've been working for the last little while on some new things: perpetual motion machines (see this earlier post for a very preliminary version), Spanish ghosts in English-conquered Jamaica, scientific projectors in Restoration England, and so on. One of these, as previous posts might … Continue reading And now for something completely different
Steven Pinker
A Can of Worms
The hedgehog and the fox; lumpers and splitters; generalists and specialists: these are not all quite the same distinction, but they share a strong family resemblance. For some people, the world -- or, to put it in temporal terms, the past -- is simple. Either it carries a handful of clear lessons, or it reveals … Continue reading A Can of Worms