Live Births in the United States, 1909-2019 October 25, 2024602 words (~3 minutes) Tags: analysis reproductive responsibility third-person Total number of births in the United States from 1909 to 2019 and number of births by age group of mother from 1968 to 2019 are quantified and discussed.
Cultural Hegemony in the United States October 23, 202410,287 words (~51 minutes) Tags: editorial first-person The culture of the United States is dominated by a hegemony based on the university system and resultant institutions and on tactics such as deplatforming and misrepresentation.
Women of Reproductive Age in the United States, 1940-2019 October 17, 20241,149 words (~5 minutes) Tags: analysis reproductive responsibility third-person The number of women of an age associated with childbearing in the United States from 1940 to 2019 is quantified and discussed.
Some Researchers Do Not Realize that Moral Convictions against Abortion Exist October 13, 2024926 words (~4 minutes) Tags: editorial first-person induced abortion Is this actual ignorance or feigned ignorance for rhetorical purposes?
National Survey of Family Growth Weights Adjusted for Abortion Under-Reporting September 8, 20243,752 words (~18 minutes) Tags: analysis reproductive responsibility induced abortion NSFG third-person These weights can be used for analysis of unintended pregnancies in the United States, such as of contraceptive efficacy and failure.
Book Review: The Identity Trap April 21, 20243,391 words (~16 minutes) Tags: book, article, or podcast review first-person Yascha Mounk gives a history of the ideas underlying identity politics and a story of how identity politics took over American culture, before arguing against its flaws.
Abortion Under-Reporting on the National Survey of Family Growth in Two Plots March 10, 20241,328 words (~6 minutes) Tags: analysis reproductive responsibility induced abortion NSFG first-person After more than a year, I am still trying to get my analysis work started.
Let's Not Platform Screaming Lunatics February 25, 2024812 words (~4 minutes) Tags: editorial reproductive responsibility politics induced abortion For a better public discourse on abortion, a good start would be not including a picture of shouting protestors with every article about abortion.
Analysis of Viewpoints on Abortion Policy in Gallup Polling: Abortion is Not a "Magic Bullet" for Democrats December 24, 20236,065 words (~30 minutes) Tags: analysis reproductive responsibility public opinion politics induced abortion first-person Gallup polling reveals that Democrats' abortion platform is only supported by a minority of Americans, but due to low voter turnout in the United States, this can sometimes still win elections.
When "Left-wing" and "Right-wing" Are and Are Not Substantive Criticism October 29, 20231,994 words (~9 minutes) Tags: editorial fallacies first-person Labels such as “left-wing” or “right-wing” can be used as substantive criticism of partisan conformity, but they can also be used by partisans in order to dismiss viewpoints arbitrarily.
Book Review: The Myth of Left and Right October 1, 20231,814 words (~9 minutes) Tags: book, article, or podcast review first-person Hyrum and Verlan Lewis argue that construing viewpoints as “left-wing” or “right-wing” is based on false premises, and that the left-right dichotomy itself is harmful to public discourse.
Rhetoric about People "Who Look Like Me" April 2, 2023863 words (~4 minutes) Tags: editorial first-person On several occasions I have encountered admonitions against those who do not understand what it is like to grow up not seeing people who “look like you.” This article is a response.
Approval of Induced Abortion is Conservative March 22, 2023892 words (~4 minutes) Tags: editorial reproductive responsibility induced abortion third-person Advocacy of induced abortion as a method of fertility control is a conservative viewpoint.
Induced Abortion is Common March 21, 20231,023 words (~5 minutes) Tags: analysis reproductive responsibility induced abortion third-person Induced abortion is common, though challenging to estimate. This article reviews sources for estimates of the prevalance induced abortion.
A History of Ideas about Induced Abortion March 20, 20235,631 words (~28 minutes) Tags: history reproductive responsibility induced abortion third-person Advocacy of induced abortion as a method of fertility control is ancient. This article explores ideas about induced abortion from the 5th century B.C.E. to the 20th century C.E.
Induced Abortion is Controversial March 19, 2023716 words (~3 minutes) Tags: analysis public opinion reproductive responsibility induced abortion third-person The empirical evidence of the Gallup Social Series' annual poll on Values and Beliefs shows that induced abortion is one of if not the most controversial moral issue in the United States.
Essentialism January 7, 20231,627 words (~8 minutes) Tags: philosophy first-person In this article, the philosophical position of essentialism is contrasted with that of nominalism, and examples of how essentialists' assertions are frustrating to nominalists are explored.
Study Enough Philosophy to Know Not to Study Philosophy December 31, 2022752 words (~3 minutes) Tags: editorial philosophy first-person This is a preface to a series of articles on philosophical positions with which I disagree that explains the rationale for the series.
Top Four Needs for Future Contraceptive Technology July 24, 20223,266 words (~16 minutes) Tags: editorial reproductive responsibility birth control third-person Methods both long-acting and reversible, non-hormonal methods, methods for men, and intrinsically more effective methods are urgent needs for contraception.
"They," "Them," "Those People," and the Fallacy of Partisan Demagoguery June 14, 20223,190 words (~15 minutes) Tags: fallacies first-person Characterizations of partisan factions lead to the Straw Man Fallacy and to a kind of No True Scotsman Fallacy, and they empower polarized viewpoints at the expense of independent thinkers.
Discussion about Disagreement on the Rationally Speaking Podcast June 3, 20225,226 words (~26 minutes) Tags: book, article, or podcast review first-person Two interviews from Rationally Speaking about disagreement are reviewed: John Nerst’s discussion of low resolution abstraction, and Buster Benson’s learnings from arguments with friends and family.
Use of Contraception in the United States Reported in the 2017-2019 National Survey of Family Growth April 28, 202216,058 words (~80 minutes) Tags: analysis reproductive responsibility birth control NSFG third-person Original research on the number of persons using and not using contraception in the United States, the contraceptive methods being used, and motives for using or discontinuing contraceptive methods.
The Fallacy of Generic Thinking March 4, 20225,531 words (~27 minutes) Tags: fallacies statistics psychology philosophy third-person Generic thinking is unquantified belief about large populations of individuals, a profound and terribly mistaken fallacy that has little use other than prejudice.
Kwame Anthony Appiah's Criticism of “Cultural Appropriation” Criticism January 26, 20222,490 words (~12 minutes) Tags: book, article, or podcast review philosophy third-person Philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah argues that “cultural appropriation” is based on a mistaken mental model of what “culture” denotes and that there are other, better criticisms.
How to Scrutinize a Statistic January 18, 202216,214 words (~81 minutes) Tags: fallacies statistics second-person When encountering a statistic, you should inquire about its provenance, its scope of inference, its practical significance, and the estimation error associated with it.
Category-Based Prejudice November 26, 20215,322 words (~26 minutes) Tags: fallacies third-person Properties of a population are not properties of individuals, and categorization is arbitrary. Therefore, category-based prejudice is more costly, less accurate, and more ambiguous than direct measurement.
Anecdotes Are Not Evidence January 31, 20217,817 words (~39 minutes) Tags: fallacies statistics psychology third-person Anecdotal evidence has flaws that make it useless for inferences about populations or about cause and effect. Valid uses of anecdotes exist, but anecdotes should be scrutinized even in such cases.
Moral Skepticism December 28, 20204,869 words (~24 minutes) Tags: philosophy third-person Searching for moral knowledge is delusional. Differences between descriptive and normative mental models imply that truth and falsity do not apply to morality and that moral constructs are fictions.
Selection Bias and the Fallacy of Listing Examples December 7, 20203,320 words (~16 minutes) Tags: fallacies statistics third-person Advocating a belief by finding supporting examples and listing them is fallacious because of selection bias; examples are selected because they illustrate the belief and contradictory cases are ignored.
Political Rhetoric as Shibboleths July 4, 20201,830 words (~9 minutes) Tags: editorial third-person Slogans of political rhetoric function as shibboleths – markers of tribal allegiance devoid of content – and so promote conformity, superficiality, and exclusion of non-binary viewpoints.
Margaret Sanger on Abortion in Her Own Words November 11, 201812,820 words (~64 minutes) Tags: history reproductive responsibility birth control induced abortion third-person Birth control pioneer and Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger felt that abortion was “taking life” and had the explicit goal of ending the use of abortion for family limitation.
