My friend Syd told me about the following intriguing quotation from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King : When Sam awoke, he found...

I was sad to read this morning that Christopher Hitchens lost his battle with cancer at the age of 62. I won't pretend I agreed with h...

A comment on one of my previous posts has alerted me to the fact that Steven Pinker has an FAQ up on his site concerning ‘Better Angels...

Separate piles of heads of men, women and children were built into pyramids; and even cats and dogs were killed in the streets. Sayfi Heravi...

Update (Sep. 12, 2015): I'm temporarily taking this post offline -- like for a year or so -- because it inspired me to write a more deta...

I n a highly problematic passage from Steven Pinker’s ‘The Better Angels of our Nature’ the professor highlights the fact that homicide rate...

I n ‘The Better Angels of our Nature’ Steven Pinker reels off example after example of ancient, medieval and early modern brutality in order...

M ost people – I think – if asked to name the bloodiest century in human history would probably say the 20th. I hasten to add this isn't...

Hey folks, sorry for the lack of posting lately. To make up for it I'm copying a debate I had on an old blog I used to write with a coup...