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Author Archives: N.S. Palmer
Fortunes of War
In the United States, November 11 is Veterans Day, first celebrated in 1919. Back in 1919 it was called Armistice Day, commemorating the 1918 armistice that ended what Americans originally called the European War. When the European War started, Americans … Continue reading
Posted in Life, Political Science, Psychology, Science
Tagged Aggression, Human Nature, Peace, Veterans Day, War, War profiteering
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A Visit to Chinese Church
This morning, I went for the first time to a Chinese-language church service. It’s the first time I’ve been to church on Sunday for a while, because half of my family is Christian and half Jewish. The church service was … Continue reading
Four Deadly Errors
Four deadly errors creep into most debates about social policy. They are the moralistic fallacy, the realistic fallacy, the rationalistic fallacy, and the existentialist fallacy: My new book Why Sane People Believe Crazy Things Second Edition helps you spot fallacies … Continue reading
Posted in Epistemology, Human Relations, Life, Philosophy, Psychology, Society
Tagged arguments, errors, Fallacies, Logic
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In Defense of Ugly People
I want to say a word in defense of ugly people. I don’t mean people who are morally or spiritually ugly, but people who just had bad luck in their appearance. Yesterday in an online discussion, an ugly woman posted … Continue reading
Posted in Human Relations, Life, Psychology
Tagged beauty, fairness, Genetics, Kindness, ugliness
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Roll the Dice
Common wisdom gives us a lot of contradictory advice. There’s: And there’s: But I think the best advice comes from the Bible: “The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, … Continue reading
Posted in Bible, Life, Philosophy, Psychology
Tagged Chance, Courage, Determination, Luck, Rudyard Kipling, Strength, Wisdom
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What Do You Want Out of Life?
To get what you want out of life, you must know what you want out of life. And even if you know it, you must remember it every day. It must always be in the back of your mind. Start … Continue reading
Posted in Life, Psychology
Tagged Affirmations, Aspirations, Fulfillment, Goals, Meaningful life, Principles, Psychology, Self-improvement
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We Are All Pythagoreans Now
“We are all Keynesians now.”— U.S. President Richard M. Nixon, 1971 If you took geometry in school, then you probably know the Pythagorean theorem: “in a right triangle, the square of the longest side equals the sum of the squares … Continue reading
Posted in Christianity, Human Relations, Life, Philosophy, Psychology, Science
Tagged Courage, Justice, Morality, Positive attitude, Wisdom
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You Have a Problem? That’s Good!
Henry Ford (1863-1947) was famous for making cars cheap enough that non-wealthy people could buy them. He revolutionized manufacturing by using assembly-line methods. Instead of having each car made individually by highly skilled craftsmen, he divided the process into simple … Continue reading
Posted in Life, Psychology
Tagged Henry Ford, Learning from mistakes, Positive attitude, Self-improvement
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Publication Day for Why Sane People Believe Crazy Things!
Today is publication day for the second edition of my book Why Sane People Believe Crazy Things: How Belief Can Help or Hurt Social Peace! The new edition adds a chapter about the foundations of morality, as well as various … Continue reading
Two Views of Human Rights
Human rights are important: on that, everyone agrees. But that’s about the only point of agreement. A big problem is that people don’t think about what human rights are or where they come from. Rights are a claim that we … Continue reading
The Thousand-Year View 