The latest additions to the Heap of Links…

1. “Science seems to be saying: yes, attending to beauty is exceptionally helpful and, also, we should pay no attention to beauty” — Michael Strevens (NYU) on scientific progress and “unreasonable constraints”
2. “Oh, writers, little do we know what unexpected power our words may have. And, oh teachers, little do you know how much every utterance from your lips may be cherished by hundreds of students a generation later” — Claudia Mills (Colorado)
3. If the “many worlds interpretation” of quantum mechanics is true, “then many observers across the many worlds are living Humean nightmares” — and “maybe we are in a slightly nightmarish Humean world after all,” explains Charlie Huenemann (Utah State)
4. Descriptions of what people do “are significantly stronger in shaping behaviour and cognition” than prescriptions telling people what to do — and this has implications for the ethics of science communication, argues Uwe Peters (Bonn, Cambridge)
5. Where did Simone de Beauvoir find “an image of adulthood she could live with”? — in the character of Jo March from Alcott’s Little Women, explains Mary Townsend (St. John’s), who understands Beauvoir’s “satisfaction in simple negation of everything religious”
6. “Not even the Sixties flower children were as countercultural as philosophy is today, and philosophers are clever enough to know their odds” — Jeannette Cooperman with some observations about the Daily Nous Non-Academic Hires page
7. “Once a Genius asked me a question in the Q&A after my talk, and then walked out before hearing my answer” — Agnes Callard (Chicago) moves from “The Queen’s Gambit” to some general points about how “Genius is a personality-laundering scheme”

Mini-Heap posts usually appear when 7 or so new items accumulate in the Heap of Links, the ever-growing collection of items from around the web that may be of interest to philosophers. Discussion welcome.

The Heap of Links consists partly of suggestions from readers; if you find something online that you think would be of interest to the philosophical community, please send it in for consideration for the Heap. Thanks!