This week, I'm reading The Blank Slate by cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker. I like his work in the fields of cognitive psychology and linguistics, and it connects well with other academic areas that interest me. Perhaps the area of study in which I've had the longest interest is ethics, or moral philosophy, which along with logic was my main area of study at university. I also studied other subjects, such as mathematics, some dead languages, and other areas of philosophy, but I've been reading and arguing about moral philosophy ever since I was in high school. It's about my only area of interest that hasn't come and gone.
Recently, the work of psychologists such as Pinker, and neuro-science, has also caught my interest because I think it is relevant to how we make moral decisions about right and wrong, justice and injustice. Similarly, there is some fascinating work being done in the area of behavioural economics by people like Dan Ariely, whose work I also enjoy reading for the often surprising insights he gives into human behaviour and decision making, which again connects with how we reason about moral issues.
And as the term progresses, you will probably learn a bit more about my interests and see some examples of things I've been reading.
And you? What are you reading about, studying or otherwise interested in these days?
Tuesday 21 September 2010
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