Daedalus articles from June 2004

Daedalus archives from June 2004

Torture in Iraq & the rule of law in America.
June 22, 2004... Doubts about the legal and moral legitimacy of American interrogation practices in the war on terror first emerged in regard to Afghanistan. In January of 2003, for example, The Economist published a remarkable set of articles on torture,...

An illusion with a future.
June 22, 2004... Questioning the idea of progress at the start of the twenty-first century is a bit like casting doubt on the existence of the Deity in Victorian times. The stock reaction is one of incredulity, followed by anger, then moral panic. It is not so...

Evaluating economic change.
June 22, 2004... In recent years there have been enormous changes in our technology, our economy, and our society. But has there been progress? From most economists the first reaction to this question is: Of course there must have been progress! After all,...

George W. Bush & the missionary position.
June 22, 2004... Jesus Christ is George W. Bush's favorite political philosopher--or so he said in a Republican primary debate leading up to his nomination. And the president's sense of mission runs deep. Speaking with evangelical zeal well over a year before...

Cultural freedom & human development today.
June 22, 2004... A dangerous fear is spreading around the world--a fear of cultures that seem threatening, for one reason or another. (1) This fear has generated questions about the role of culture in human progress that have increasingly come to dominate...

History & truth.
June 22, 2004... History, according to Schopenhauer, teaches but a single lesson: eadem, sed aliter--the same things happen again and again, only differently. "Once one has read Herodotus, one has studied enough history, philosophically speaking." (1) If,...

On Condorcet's "Sketch".(Marie-Jean-Antoine Nicolas Caritat de Condorcet)
June 22, 2004... Marie-Jean-Antoine Nicolas Caritat de Condorcet's Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind--perhaps the most influential formulation of the idea of progress ever written--was first published in 1795, a year after its...

Sketch for a historical picture of the progress of the human mind: tenth epoch.(Condorcet)
June 22, 2004... Translator's Note: There is still no definitive or critical edition of Condorcet's "Esquisse d'un tableau historique des progres de l'esprit humain," or of the other parts of the work for which it was intended as an introduction. The text...

Constructive transformation: an alternative vision of global security.
June 22, 2004... Throughout history, assuring the security of citizens has been an overriding priority of most governments, and large-scale forms of deliberate aggression have been their dominant concern. (1) In response to that concern, modern states have made...

Green.
June 22, 2004... Tree-leaves which, till the growing-season's done, Change into wood the powers of the sun, Take from that radiance only reds and blues. Green is a color that they cannot use, And so their rustling myriads are seen To wear all...

On the search for extrasolar planets.
June 22, 2004... Astrobiology, the search for life's origins and its existence elsewhere in the universe, used to seem like a visionary dream. But in recent years, it has become a true science, thanks in part to new developments in the search for Earth-like...

On how to improve world health.
June 22, 2004... Malaria, tuberculosis, and the strains of HIV common in Africa kill 5 million people each year, almost all of them in low-income countries. Effective vaccines against these diseases are desperately needed. Yet there is a striking dearth of...