Before there were materialist explanations of nature’s unpredictable fury, there were stories. These stories were not mere entertainment, but were attempts to make sense of that which was inexplicable. The world is of course an unpredictable place. We were powerfully reminded of this but one month ago, as an earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan.
Modern Japanese [...]
Tags:Alan McMillan·Cascadia·causation·dwarfs·earthquake·Ian Hutchinson·Japan·Julie Cruikshank·Kwakiutl·materialist explanations·mountain dwarfs·Northwest Coast·Nuu-chah-nulth·Nuxalk·oral traditions·Salish·sea spirits·seismic events·stories·storytelling·subduction·supernatural explanations·tsunami
Humans everywhere are inveterate storytellers. Because storytelling, in the form of narrative, is found in all cultures and is structurally similar — with agents and action linked together by causation — there is excellent reason to think this ability is the result of intense selection pressure and is not simply a byproduct of other cognitive [...]
Tags:adaptation·agency detection·ancestral environment·archetypes·byproduct·causal attribution·causation·cause·correlation·David Hume·effect·folklore·Immanuel Kant·information·language·Michelle Scalise Sugiyama·narration·narrative·social information·stories·storytelling·tales·theory of mind
I am not sure that anyone has all the answers or has exhausted the range of possibilities, but after reading this article about “content farms” in Slate, I thought I would give it a whirl. Of course content farms never give a decent answer, but causal explanations in the back forty have tremendous appeal and [...]
Tags:Angela Tchou·Annie Lowrey·causation·content farms·conversion·Ellen Langer·explanations·Malcolm Gladwell·narrative·Photocopier Effect·Pima Paradox·reasons·suspension of disbelief·theology
An intense forest fire in Israel has resulted in 41 tragic deaths. It was started by two teenagers who left a bonfire unattended. Although the real world causation and negligence is clear, one of Israel’s leading rabbis contends that God stoked the fire because many Israelis are not observing the sabbath. By this twisted reasoning, [...]
Tags:bonfire·causation·correlation·fire·Israel·Ovadia Yosef·Pat Robertson
Here is an explanation for ritual that makes considerable sense: if you are about to perform some task, and think that engaging in some — indeed any — form of ritual will enhance your performance, there is a good chance the mental prime improves subsequent performance. My guess is that there is fine line between [...]
Tags:causation·luck·magic·magical thinking·mental prime·performance·ritual·superstition
Seed Magazine is running a strange article about the word “so.” Instead of having a “writer” or “reporter,” this story has an “analyst” whose name is Michael Erard. Here is what our analyst says about the word “so”:
The language of science, with its specialized vocabulary and clipped rhythm, has a distinctive architecture.
The functional elegance of [...]
Tags:"so"·basic literacy·causation·explanation·grammar·junk words·matters of style·Michael Erard·Seed Magazine·sentence structure·the word "so"·Valley girl talk
In keeping with the themes from my previous posts on prayer/probabilities and supplication/statistics, it would be remiss not to discuss B.F. Skinner’s classic 1948 study in which he demonstrated that the regular delivery or occurrence of something — or what might be called consistency of experience over time — can result in the (mistaken) perception [...]
Tags:B.F. Skinner·causation·chance·contingency·correlation·David Hume·magic·pigeons·prayer·probability·ritual·rituals·statistics·superstition·supplication
In yesterday’s post, I linked a video which deals with two possible outcomes of supplication (i.e., a prayer request): the thing requested happens or the thing requested does not happen. When the thing requested does or does not happen, the non-outcome may be interpreted in a third way, which is not an actual outcome but [...]
Tags:average·causation·central tendency·chance·contingency·correlation·deviations·mean·odds·prayer·probability·reinforcement·ritual·statistics·supplication
