Philosophy
Thinking about one place where cognitive work in psychology overlaps with social psychology, the weapons effect. In the late 60s, psychologists Berkowitz and LePage showed that just seeing a weapon causes people to act more aggressively. Contemporary researchers Bartholow, Anderson, and Benjamin have furthered the work by showing that seeing a weapon primes the brain for aggressive thoughts and makes aggressive actions more likely.
We're told by the National Rifle Association and other gun advocates that guns don't kill people, people kill people, but the fact is that the presence of a weapon does create a mindset in which we are more likely to inhabit a mental space where we will think about killing someone and have more of a predilection than normal towards doing so. The idea that we are neutral, rational agents and that weapons are mere tools is false, the weapons alter our psychology itself.
But the laws governing the possession of weapons is based largely on the Enlightenment concepts of rights and freedom which presuppose the naive view that we are purely rational beings. Given that we can scientifically show that we are not, how should law change? Should the results of psychology alter the way we structure society or are general notions like rights something that are extra-scientific, not open to challenge by the way the world happens to be?
- Stand Your Ground Laws And The Return To The State Of Nature
In light of the Trayvon Martin killings, a spotlight has been cast onto so-called stand your ground laws. The idea is that you cannot be convicted of murder if you kill someone with the belief that your life was endangered by the victim. Whether you were...
- The Fact That We Didn't Find Any Means They Probably Were There
David Corn on Christopher Hitchens: "When he did address the issue of the absent WMDs in Iraq, he took a strange turn. 'Doesn't anything ever strike you as odd," he said, "about the figure of zero for [WMD] deposits found in Iraq? ... Isn't...
- Still Trying To Predict Human Behavior
Abstract... The phrase ‘folk psychology’ refers to the ordinary psychology we use to understand each other and ourselves. Although folk psychology may initially seem to be a rather simple sort of thing, it can actually be surprisingly difficult...
- Casual Nuclear Weapons Development
"Laid-Back in the Lab, Maybe, but They Spurred the Weapons Race" by John Markoff July 4th, 2011 The New York Times In 1952 the physicist Ernest O. Lawrence assembled a group of young scientists to design weapons that were radically different from those...
- I Hear That The Brooklyn Bridge Is For Sale...again
Really believe it? "Pentagon Official: U.S. Is Not Developing Space Weapons" by Peter B. de Selding February 20th, 2009 space.com STRASBOURG, France - The United States is not developing space weapons and could not afford to do so even if it wanted...
Philosophy
Do We Control the Weapons or Do the Weapons Control Us?
Thinking about one place where cognitive work in psychology overlaps with social psychology, the weapons effect. In the late 60s, psychologists Berkowitz and LePage showed that just seeing a weapon causes people to act more aggressively. Contemporary researchers Bartholow, Anderson, and Benjamin have furthered the work by showing that seeing a weapon primes the brain for aggressive thoughts and makes aggressive actions more likely.
We're told by the National Rifle Association and other gun advocates that guns don't kill people, people kill people, but the fact is that the presence of a weapon does create a mindset in which we are more likely to inhabit a mental space where we will think about killing someone and have more of a predilection than normal towards doing so. The idea that we are neutral, rational agents and that weapons are mere tools is false, the weapons alter our psychology itself.
But the laws governing the possession of weapons is based largely on the Enlightenment concepts of rights and freedom which presuppose the naive view that we are purely rational beings. Given that we can scientifically show that we are not, how should law change? Should the results of psychology alter the way we structure society or are general notions like rights something that are extra-scientific, not open to challenge by the way the world happens to be?
- Stand Your Ground Laws And The Return To The State Of Nature
In light of the Trayvon Martin killings, a spotlight has been cast onto so-called stand your ground laws. The idea is that you cannot be convicted of murder if you kill someone with the belief that your life was endangered by the victim. Whether you were...
- The Fact That We Didn't Find Any Means They Probably Were There
David Corn on Christopher Hitchens: "When he did address the issue of the absent WMDs in Iraq, he took a strange turn. 'Doesn't anything ever strike you as odd," he said, "about the figure of zero for [WMD] deposits found in Iraq? ... Isn't...
- Still Trying To Predict Human Behavior
Abstract... The phrase ‘folk psychology’ refers to the ordinary psychology we use to understand each other and ourselves. Although folk psychology may initially seem to be a rather simple sort of thing, it can actually be surprisingly difficult...
- Casual Nuclear Weapons Development
"Laid-Back in the Lab, Maybe, but They Spurred the Weapons Race" by John Markoff July 4th, 2011 The New York Times In 1952 the physicist Ernest O. Lawrence assembled a group of young scientists to design weapons that were radically different from those...
- I Hear That The Brooklyn Bridge Is For Sale...again
Really believe it? "Pentagon Official: U.S. Is Not Developing Space Weapons" by Peter B. de Selding February 20th, 2009 space.com STRASBOURG, France - The United States is not developing space weapons and could not afford to do so even if it wanted...