Lewis Lapham, the elegant and mischievous, patrician and populist editor who reinvented Harper’s, is dead. He was 89... NYTimes... Christian Lorentzen... Kelly Burdick... Nic Rowan... Lapham's Quarterly... more »
The most serious objections to the arguments of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus are found in the work itself... more »
Unlike computers, humans thrive on ambiguity and equivocation, on double entendre and sophistry, on blunders and embarrassments... more »
History is full of instances when science was subjugated to ideology, and science suffered. Is that happening now in America?... more »
Writers are susceptible to pressure from both market and peers. That’s not to say literary excellence isn’t the result of individual genius... more »