Ebooks v paper
Because it is obvious that reading is important, it can easily seem self-evident what reading is. Perhaps the real contribution of ereaders will be to make us re-examine that assumption.
ReadTag: Science
The problems of describing mental illness
We are often told that there is still a stigma surrounding mental illness. It is therefore strange that the England cricketer Jonathan Trott was stigmatised for allegedly not having one. Trott left the England tour of Australia in November citing a “long-standing, stress-related condition”. But when he gave an interview last month explaining that he was burnt out rather than depressed, the former England captain Michael Vaughan said that he felt “a little bit conned”, saying, “When I hear players talking about burnout, I suspect it is an excuse.”
ReadHow free are we?
A necessary illusion is likely to contain an unavoidable truth. In the case of free will, that truth is that human beings do things for reasons and are able to modify their behaviour on the basis of argument and evidence. Is that free will? You decide.
ReadBattle of Ideas
SOUL ON THE SLAB VIDEO. A film of a discussion at the 2013 Battle of Ideas with Bill Durodié, Geraint Rees and Sally Satel, with chair Claire Fox.
ReadReview: The Brain Sell
The clearest evidence that neuromarketing is not such a game changer is that all the key techniques used to package and sell the book itself predate any insights that the brain sciences may have brought. If even David Lewis has to rely on the same old methods tried and tested by people who wouldn’t know a synapse from a neuron, then neuromarketing may indeed be new and improved, but not quite as much as we are led to believe.
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