Christopher X J. Jensen
Associate Professor, Pratt Institute

Economic Whales and their Parasites

Posted 27 May 2012 / 0

Today’s New York Times Business section features an interesting article on the recent JPMorgan multi-billion loss. Entitled “The Hunch, the Pounce and the Kill: How Boaz Weinstein and Hedge Funds Outsmarted JPMorgan“, the article explains how a risk-prone hedge fund manager named Boaz Weinstein was able to exploit errors by JPMorgan and end up on Read More

Articles, Economic sustainability, Economics, Ethics, Parasitism, Public Policy, Social Capital, System Stability

Larry Arnhart reviews E.O. Wilson’s “The Social Conquest of Earth”

Posted 21 May 2012 / 0

Darwinian Conservatism “Darwinian Natural Right in E. O. Wilson’s New Book” One of the most interesting issues raised by this post has to do with “evolutionary ethics” and that question of whether there is a natural morality. I would caution against confusing this issue with the “naturalistic fallacy”, which to me has to do with Read More

A Minor Post, Cooperation, Ethics, Social Norms, Web

David Sloan Wilson differentiates “Evolutionary Religious Studies” from “The New Atheism”

Posted 21 May 2012 / 0

Huffington Post David Sloan Wilson “The New Atheism and Evolutionary Religious Studies: Clarifying Their Relationship” It might surprise you which discipline is more scientific in their approach!

A Minor Post, Cultural Evolution, Evolution, Religion, Social Norms

Social Evolution Forum takes on role of social networking in human cooperation

Posted 18 May 2012 / 0

Social Evolution Forum Robin I.M. Dunbar “Networking Past and Present” Social Evolution Forum Nicholas Baumard “The Evolution of Cooperation: from Networks to Institutions” Social Evolution Forum Herbert Gintis “Commentary on Dunbar and Baumard” Some interesting stuff here: We may no longer live in fission-fusion tribes, but we still move around a lot socially (changing family partnerships, looking Read More

A Minor Post, Cooperation, Gene-Culture Coevolution, Punishment, Social Networks

Why don’t other animals make better use of punishment?

Posted 14 May 2012 / 0

Trends in Ecology & Evolution “Punishment and cooperation in nature“

A Minor Post, Articles, Cooperation, Punishment

Richard Sennett’s “Together” explores the history of cooperative rituals

Posted 10 May 2012 / 0

Yale University Press “Together: The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Cooperation“

A Minor Post, Articles, Behavior, Cooperation, Political Science

National Academies Press releases proceedings for “Cooperation and Conflict” colloquium

Posted 10 May 2012 / 0

The National Academies Press “In the Light of Evolution V: Cooperation and Conflict”

A Minor Post, Conferences, Cooperation

“Open Yale” course provides the fundamentals of Game Theory for free

Posted 10 May 2012 / 0

Open Yale courses “Econ 159: Game Theory“

A Minor Post, Game Theory, Higher Education

James K. Galbraith makes the connection between debt policy and social stability

Posted 09 May 2012 / 0

The Brian Lehrer Show “Inequality and Stability” As I have suggested in previous posts, debt has the potential to destabilize societies.

A Minor Post, Ethics, Political Science, Public Policy, Radio & Podcasts, System Stability, System Stability

Short interview with Mark Pagel in The Guardian

Posted 08 May 2012 / 0

The Guardian “Mark Pagel: culture is central to human success” I thought it was interesting how Pagel took on the “culture as parasite” idea pretty directly: we are far too dependent on culture for it to be parasitizing us, although culture probably does lead to the sacrifice of the ‘good of the individual’ for the ‘good Read More

A Minor Post, Breeders, Propagators, & Creators, Cooperation, Cultural Evolution