Author: Ophelia Benson

Steven Pinker interview explores why sociobiology is so upsetting to both left and right.

Studies on jealousy agree on evolutionary origin but differ on how it plays out.

Another skirmish in the long-running debate over how evolution shapes sexual differences.

A Georgia school board, in Postmodern vein, says diversity of opinion is the way to go–at least when it comes to evolution.

Didactic impulses or nationalist piety can shape the work of even the most detached biographer.

Marina Warner on the spiral of duplicity between thoughtful men and women and bogus mediums.

Vulgar Kaelism gets it wrong: she did not think popular movies were automatically art, and she was not a moral relativist.

When scholars actually look at evidence, they find rapists and failing students as pleased with themselves as the next person.

Croatian President Stipe Mesic tells his fellow Croatians they must honour all their commitments, not only the painless ones.

Shouting match over genes versus parents ruffles calm of Radio 3.

Steven Pinker says parents have less influence than they think, while peers have more.

Oliver James says emphasis on genes to explain human nature is a way to escape guilt.

Bernard Williams points out that Nietzsche did not settle for ironic chat or a smug nod at deconstruction-work, and nor should we.

Twist and turn, avoid details, oversimplify: such postmodern tricks tarnish the integrity of the left.

Simon Blackburn on the meaninglessness of exhortations to tolerate all points of view.

Difference feminism as separate education for schoolgirls relies on few and narrow studies, Margaret Talbot says.

Philip Gosse explained the fossil evidence as God’s little joke.

Outraged father wonders who decided that parents should help children with homework. Surely that’s someone else’s duty.

Exams board chief intervened to mark down bright students by way of making A level scores strike a ‘balance’.

Another entry for the Intelligent Design shelf. No Free Lunch claims that complexity requires intelligence, but reviewer is not persuaded.