Understanding Society

We often speak of government as if it has intentions, beliefs, fears, plans, and phobias. This sounds a lot like a mind. But this impres...

When we discuss the ontology of various aspects of the social world, we are often thinking of such things as institutions, organizations,...

Since the beginning of the industrial age the topic of regulation of private activity for the public good has been essential for the he...

One of the most interesting authorities on social models and simulations is Scott Page. This month he published a major book on this top...

This month marks the end of the eleventh year of publication of Understanding Society . Thanks to all the readers and visitors who have ...

Sexual harassment of women in academic settings is regrettably common and pervasive, and its consequences are grave. At the same time, i...

Quite a few posts here have focused on the question of emergence in social ontology, the idea that there are causal processes and powers...

There is a new exciting and valuable contribution from the research group around Raj Chetty, Nathan Hendren, and John Friedman, this t...

Are emotions real? Are they hardwired to our physiology? Are they pre-cognitive and purely affective? Was Darwin right in speculating th...

image: Adolf von Menzel,  The Iron Rolling Mill (Modern Cyclopes) Readers may have noticed that my current research interests have to...