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Thought of the day: could there be an equilibrium of personality types?

April 20, 2018 - 01:03 -- Admin

Suppose you buy the idea popular in psychology that there are stable personality types largely formed in childhood and that the population has relatively stable proportions of these personality types. The Big5 personality types are agreeableness, extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness and openness. Often added to this list is Locus of Control. Other traits like analytical ability, empathy, and shyness are also often mentioned in the many lists of personality doing the rounds.

A Personal Comment on Syria

April 14, 2018 - 23:06 -- Admin

Setting aside the question of evidence, there’s a serious problem with the contention that Syria carried out the recent chemical attack in Douma. It requires us to accept not only that the Syrian government is evil but also that it’s comically stupid. It was on the point of liberating the area after years of jihadi occupation and Trump had announced only a week before that the US was looking to get out of Syria, and soon.

Sortition, merit and a democratic House of Lords: a thought experiment

April 13, 2018 - 22:37 -- Admin

As I started thinking about the ancient Athenian practice of sortition or the appointment of citizens to deliberative governmental bodies by lot, it started to open up to me not just as one option for selecting representatives, but as a whole repertoire – a whole way of thinking about what democracy was, what might undermine it and how it might be defended and nurtured.

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