After a year offline, the blog is back at integrationism.blog—with the Galápagos diary, the gratitude practice, book reviews, and a series on the idea behind On the Destiny of Species. … More The blog is back
Messages across continents in an instant, home overnight by air—and what the same journeys cost Darwin, just two lifetimes ago. … More Gratitude Practice: Modern Communication and Transportation Networks
Human beings are wired to be fearful. Let’s talk about the evidence for optimism. We’ve been programmed by millions of years of evolution to pay more attention to potential and perceived threats than to actual, real benefits. As a result, many people live with and suffer from unnecessary fear and anxiety. As the evolutionary science … More Apocaholics Anonymous
An achingly beautiful novel about a nineteenth-century woman who discovers the process of evolution by natural selection independently of Darwin and Wallace—the greatest portrayal of the process of discovery I have encountered, and now one of my all time favorite novels. … More Book Review: The Signature of All Things, by Elizabeth Gilbert
The best way to review “Civil Disobedience” is to let Thoreau speak for himself: “There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.” A great essay, inconsistent on what government is for, with four more essays of mixed value. … More Book Review: Civil Disobedience and Other Essays, by Henry David Thoreau
Four Lovecraft tales—“The Call of Cthulhu,” “The Hound,” “The Dunwich Horror,” and “Dagon”—surprisingly well written as long as you don’t take them too seriously, with his influence on subsequent horror from King and Koontz to The X-Files everywhere in evidence. … More Book Review: The Call of Cthulhu and Other Stories, by H. P. Lovecraft
Mayr’s final book, summing up three-quarters of a century of thought on how biology differs from the physical sciences and other issues in the philosophy of science from one of the architects of the Evolutionary Synthesis. … More Book Review: What Makes Biology Unique? by Ernst Mayr
The book to read after the Origin itself: Mayr gives an overview of Darwin’s evidence and arguments and fills in the gaps with modern science, at a level the intelligent nonspecialist can follow. … More Book Review: What Evolution Is, by Ernst Mayr
