Thursday, October 27, 2011

I Got There First

Barbara King could have saved a lot of time in reviewing Michael C. Corballis's The Recursive Mind if she had read my dissertation. Corballis could have saved himself the embarrassment of her review if he had read it. I already discussed in it the presence of recursion in any species that hunts.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Article on E. O. Wilson

Good new article in The Atlantic on E. O. Wilson, who has a new, sure to be controversial, book coming out.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Rhythm and Memory

In my dissertation I argued that the best way for people to learn is for them to have a rhythmic education. It turns out that I was right. In other words, regular rhythmic verse aids in memory. This is important in helping us to understand both the origins of rhythmic poetry, and the reason we continue to be attracted to it (unless one is a postmodernist professor of English, in which case it's not fashionable to like it). If we want students to learn their lessons easily, the textbooks should be in something like blank verse. It doesn't even have to be so obvious -- iambic lines will do.