In the Economist’s World in 2013 issue there is an article, The Cycle of History (thanks to John McGonagle for bringing it to my attention). The author, Max Rodenbeck, discusses the recent events of the Arab Spring from the point of view of Ibn Khaldun’s theory. >>Read More

The Economist and Nature recently reviewed current literature at the intersection of genetics and political behavior. >>Read More

Scholars continue to debate the Decline of Violence thesis. The latest critique is offered by Nassim Taleb; Pinker responds. >>Read More

Greater Good interviews Johnathan Haidt, author of The Righteous Mind, in the wake of the 2012 U.S. presidential election and asks: How can evolutionary science help us to move forward in the context of a divided electorate? >>Read More

The great challenge for the framers of the American Constitution was how to make society function at a large scale. Numerous smaller social entities existed, such as villages, the separate colonies, and religions, but if these entities were allowed to pursue their separate interests without any form of regulation or sense of being part of a larger grou >>Read More

Do you favor wealth redistribution? The answer might depend on how strong you are. >>Read More

"We typically feel that we understand how complex systems work even when our true understanding is superficial. And it is not until we are asked to explain how such a system works...that we realize how little we actually know." >>Read More