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Building new nuclear reactors is an ethical duty (for countries like Germany)

Is there a wind of change in Germany? The country has one of the strongest anti-nuclear movements in Europe, and the Atomausstieg (nuclear phase-out) was supported by a broad political consensus. But today, more and more German people, including political and business personalities, support the idea of extending the lifetime of the last three nuclear power plants in their country.… Lees verder »Building new nuclear reactors is an ethical duty (for countries like Germany)

Why We Should Be Suspicious of Conspiracy Theories

What will the next major world event be? It’s difficult to make predictions, as the physicist Niels Bohr once said, especially about the future. But one thing can be prophesied with near certainty: whatever will happen, the event in question will spawn a range of conspiracy theories. The official version of events, whatever it turns out to be, will be… Lees verder »Why We Should Be Suspicious of Conspiracy Theories

My conversation with Steven Pinker about ‘Rationality’

Here’s my conversation with the psychologist Steven Pinker about his latest book ‘Rationality’ at the Night of the Freethinker (Nacht van de Vrijdenker) in Ghent. We talked about the undeserved “uncoolness” of rationality, the allure of positive illusions, the cultural wisdom of jokes, the science of cultural evolution and the concept of memes, the popularity of books portraying people as… Lees verder »My conversation with Steven Pinker about ‘Rationality’

Why Covid Did Not Spell the End of Globalisation (And a good thing too!)

Probably the most common prediction about the world during the Covid pandemic was that this was the end of the era of globalization. The world as we knew it before 2020, with its daily merry-go-round of people and goods and services, would be gone forever. While some commentators deplored this, fearing a retrograde move towards greater nationalism and protectionism, many others eagerly… Lees verder »Why Covid Did Not Spell the End of Globalisation (And a good thing too!)

Why Environmentalists Pose a Bigger Obstacle to Effective Climate Policy than Denialists

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In the recent Netflix smash hit Don’t Look Up, scientists try to warn the world about a comet hurtling towards Earth that is going to wipe out human civilization and possibly life itself. Except, no-one wants to hear the bad news: the US president is too busy with the midterm elections and wants to silence the scientific Cassandras, a psychopathic tech… Lees verder »Why Environmentalists Pose a Bigger Obstacle to Effective Climate Policy than Denialists

Do free will skeptics swallow their own medicine?

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(Book review of Daniel C. Dennett and Gregg D. Caruso: Just deserts. Debating free will, Cambridge: Polity, 2021, 223 pp, $15.99 PB. A slightly shortened version was published in Metascience) How can we ever hope to resolve philosophical questions with which some of our smartest thinkers have wrestled for centuries, with no agreed resolution in sight? Perhaps we should delegate… Lees verder »Do free will skeptics swallow their own medicine?

Why Relativism is the Worst Idea Ever

The philosopher Allan Bloom once lamented: ‘There is one thing a professor can be absolutely certain of: almost every student entering the university believes, or says he believes, that truth is relative.’ Perhaps Bloom overstated his case, but as a university teacher myself, I think he’s onto something. Do people who proclaim that ‘truth is relative’ or that ‘everyone has their… Lees verder »Why Relativism is the Worst Idea Ever