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Darwin's Psychology

Darwin’s theory of agency: back to the future in evolutionary science?

By Ben Bradley

Was Darwin a one-trick pony? The scientists who most laud him typically cite just one of his ideas: natural selection. Do any know that his theory of evolution—like his take on psychology—was drawn from a comprehensive analysis of organisms as agents? This fact has long been eclipsed by the “gene’s-eye view” of adaptation which gained a strangle-hold over biology during the twentieth century—and hence over sociobiology and today’s “evolutionary” psychology.

The Louvre and its environs

By Anatoly Liberman

What is the origin of the name Louvre? Dictionaries and websites say unanimously that the sought-for etymology is unknown or uncertain. Perhaps so, but we will see.

Black History Month square

Ten empowering books to read in celebration of Black History Month

By Jo Wojtkowski

In observance of Black History Month, we are celebrating our prize-winning authors and empowering scholarship spanning a variety of topics across African American history, the civil rights movement, Black Lives Matter, the Harlem Renaissance, jazz, and more. Explore our reading list and update your bookshelf with the most recent titles from these eminent authors.

Live after gravity

Isaac Newton’s London life: a quiz

By Patricia Fara

Isaac Newton is known as the scientist who discovered gravity, but less well-known are the many years he spent in metropolitan London, and what precisely he got up to in that time…

John Rawls: Debating the Major Questions

John Rawls: an ideal theorist for nonideal times?

By Jon Mandle and Sarah Roberts-Cady

John Rawls’s “A Theory of Justice” was published fifty years ago. What is the connection between Rawls’s abstract theorizing about justice and work aiming to address real-world injustices?

Language Arts, Math, and Science in the Elementary Music Classrooom

Tips for adapting the elementary music curriculum to online teaching

By Kim Milai

Teachers of the performing arts are adapting their classes to go online. The problems and challenges range from ensuring enough physical space for movement around each student’s computer to overcoming audio and video syncing delays during the live feed. But what about elementary music?

The skin of etymological teeth

By Anatoly Liberman

Is English “skin” related to Greek “skēnē”? The story of “skin” and some other words, partly synonymous with it, is worthy of attention.

Shakespeare and East Asia

Five themes in Asian Shakespeare adaptations

By Alexa Alice Joubin

Since the 19th century, stage and film directors have mounted hundreds of adaptations of Shakespeare drawn on East Asian motifs, and by the late 20th century, Shakespeare had become one of the most frequently performed playwrights in East Asia.

Oxford World's Classics

Which literary heroine are you? [quiz]

By Julia Baker

To best celebrate the online launch of the Oxford World’s Classics, discover which literary heroine you are most like with our quiz.

Empire of Ruins

The ruins of the post-Covid city—and the essential task of rebuilding

By Miles Orvell

We are in the midst of a Covid economy that has decimated the cities of America. It’s essential for us all to recognize that we’re in this together and to support local and national efforts to rebuild, on the basis of a unified public consciousness that has been markedly absent from our divided nation in recent years.

“Gig” and its kin

By Anatoly Liberman

I received a query from my colleague, who asked me what I think about a possible tie between “Sheela na gig” and the English word “gig.” Therefore, I decided to devote a special post to it.

Dead Zones

Dead zones: growing areas of aquatic hypoxia are threatening our oceans and rivers

By David Kirchman

A lake, sea, or coastal ocean turns into a dead zone when the supply of oxygen from the atmosphere and photosynthesis is overwhelmed by the use of oxygen during organic material degradation.

Darwin's Historical Sketch: An Examination of the 'Preface' to the Origin of Species

Ten things you didn’t know about Darwin

By Christina Fleischer

Charles Darwin’s birthday on 12 February is widely celebrated in the scientific community and has come to be known as “Darwin day.” In recognition of Darwin’s 212th birthday this year we have put together a list of ten interesting facts about the father of evolution.

Etymology gleanings for December 2020 and January 2021

By Anatoly Liberman

Impulses behind word formation never change. This statement surprised one of our readers. However, if we assume that most “natural” words are, at least to some degree, sound-symbolic and/or sound-imitative (onomatopoeic), such monosyllabic complexes as kob, kab, keb, kub, kid, kat, and their likes must have arisen again and again in the course of language history, even if every time they were tied to different objects.

Journeys through Galant expositions

Joseph Riepel and a very long hello

By L. Poundie Burstein

Joseph Riepel’s celebrated music theory treatise, Anfangsgründe zur musicalischen Setzkunst, unfolds in a lively and witty manner. Most of its chapters are framed in the guise of lessons, presented as dialogues between a teacher and student.

After the Black Death

The Black Death: how did the world’s deadliest pandemic change society?

By Mark Bailey

COVID-19 has ignited global interest in past pandemics, and the Black Death of 1346-53 is the worst in recorded history. Recent research has transformed our understanding of this lethal disease, which coincided with environmental stress and rapid climate change. But in the long term it proved a watershed in human history, triggering a range of institutional, economic, and social changes that opened up the route to liberal modernity.