Daedalus back issues from January 2004:
What we do & don't know about learning.
Jan 01, 2004; ... Suppose that we were commissioned to create a museum of learning. I don't mean a stuffy, hands-off collection of old manuscripts or films, but rather a state-of-the-art exploratorium that displayed the full spectrum of learning types and, in vivid form, everything that is known about ...
A short history of psychological theories of learning.
Jan 01, 2004; ... Learning remains an elusive topic, despite the endless research lavished on it. And what we mean by it, of course, is shaped by how we choose to study it. Concentrate on how children master their native language and you arrive at a very different conception of learning than had you ...
Finding our inner scientist.
Jan 01, 2004; ... In 1946, the philosopher of science Karl Popper had a fateful meeting with the philosopher of language Ludwig Wittgenstein at the Cambridge Philosophy Club. In a talk to the Club, with Wittgenstein in the audience, Popper described several "philosophical problems"--important, difficult ...
Behind the ape's appearance: escaping anthropocentrism in the study of other minds.
Jan 01, 2004; ... Look at Megan. Not just at her distinctively chimpanzee features--her accentuated brow ridge, her prognathic face, her coarse black hair--but at the totality of her being: her darting eyes, her slow, studied movements, the gestures she makes as her companion, Jadine, passes nearby. Can ...
How do neurons know?
Jan 01, 2004; ... My knowing anything depends on my neurons--the cells of my brain. (1) More precisely, what I know depends on the specific configuration of connections among my trillion neurons, on the neurochemical interactions between connected neurons, and on the response portfolio of different neuron ...
Learning through others.
Jan 01, 2004; ... Learning is a biological adaptation. The majority of organisms on Earth learn little or nothing during their individual lifetimes. On the other hand, many mammals are born in a highly immature state and so they must individually learn things crucial for their survival. In order to find ...
Bootstrapping & the origin of concepts.
Jan 01, 2004; ... All animals learn. But only human beings create scientific theories, mathematics, literature, moral systems, and complex technology. And only humans have the capacity to acquire such culturally constructed knowledge in the normal course of immersion in the adult world. There ...
The automation of discovery.
Jan 01, 2004; ... Scientific revolutions are sometimes quiet. Despite a lack of public fanfare, there is mounting evidence that we are in the midst of such a revolution--premised on the automation of scientific discovery made possible by modern computers and new methods of acquiring data. ...
October.
Jan 01, 2004; ... <Pre> The day was hot, and entirely breathless, so The remarkably quiet, remarkably steady leaf fall Seemed as if it had no cause at all. The ticking sound of falling leaves was like The ticking sound of gentle rainfall as They quietly fell on leaves already fallen, Or as, when ...
The Annunciation.(Short Story)
Jan 01, 2004; ... The bear in the driver's seat wasn't made of flesh or any other three-dimensional substance, but of light and color, like characters in animated cartoons. The car it drove had approached him from behind, pulled nearer to the sidewalk, and slowed to the pace of his walk. The bear was ...
On the social science wars.
Jan 01, 2004; ... In the spring of 2003, as the founding editor of Perspectives on Politics, I helped to launch the first new journal sponsored by the American Political Science Association (APSA) in over a century. The new journal grew out of the general disaffection that had been floating around the ...
On literature & childhood.
Jan 01, 2004; ... The book that most deeply affected me as a child was David and the Phoenix by David Ormondroyd. First published in 1957, the book is about a boy who becomes friends with a wise and sometimes wisecracking phoenix, until it burns and dies and then rises again, leaving the boy forever. The ...
On a writer's endgame.(Richard Stern)
Jan 01, 2004; ... <Pre> Haven't I given specimen clues, if no more? At any rate I have written enough to weary myself--and I will dispatch it to the printers, and cease. But how much--how many topics, of the greatest point and cogency, I am leaving untouch'd! --Walt Whitman, "Last Saved Items" ...
Cambridge's first African Ph.D.?(Letter to the Editor)
Jan 01, 2004; ... November 26, 2003 To the Editor: I was struck by the statement in the Summer 2003 issue of Daedalus that Kwame Anthony Appiah "is reputed to be the first African to have received a Ph.D. at Cambridge" (page 104). It is quite certain that this is false, and I would ...