The Best of Quillette
10+ most popular Quillette articles, as voted by our community.
Free Thought Lives
Trending
These are currently making the rounds on Refind.
How Do We Define ‘Life’?
An excerpt from 'The Edge of Knowledge: Unsolved Mysteries of the Cosmos.'
Astrobiology: The Rise and Fall of a Nascent Science
Premature claims, distorted results, and ‘decolonizing’ the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
Quillette on Dedication
Rushdie’s Moral Heroism
The attempt on the great writer’s life illustrates the dedication with which fanatics pursue the objects of their hatred.
Quillette on Education
Why I Left Academia (Since You're Wondering)
I didn’t have a choice. Thousands of people are driven out of the profession each year.
What Progressive Educators Get Wrong About Creativity
Originality requires both knowledge and technical mastery.
Quillette on Game Theory
The Incentives for Groupthink
In thinking about the extraordinary capitulation of our institutions to the self-avowedly radical, ‘subversive’ and altogether pernicious forces of Marxism and intersectionality, there is a temptation…
Quillette on Islam
Will It Be Different This Time?
It is starting to look like a question of when, not if, the Islamic Republic of Iran will fall.
Quillette on Nuclear Energy
Hyping the Energy Transition
Consumption of fossil fuels is growing faster than ever.
«Last year, according to data from the BP Statistical Review of World Energy, in both the US, and the world as a whole, the growth in hydrocarbons—oil, natural gas, and coal—far exceeded the growth of wind and solar by huge margins.»
Quillette on Politics
The Crack-Up
How individual and civilisational identities collapse.
«mortgaging myself physically and spiritually up to the hilt.”»
Quillette on Psychology
Narcissism and Fraudulence
Intensive con artistry may be a narcissistic strategy for the avoidance of self-knowledge.
«For victimized minds, two wrongs make a right.»
Ken Kesey and the Rush to Deinstitutionalization
Whatever the literary strengths of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the book has done much to harm both the mentally ill and their communities
Quillette on Writing
ChatGPT and the Future of the Professions
Professionals must learn to work with the machines or they will be replaced by them.
«ChatGPT and the Future of the Professions»
Words Don’t Matter
We have power over words, not vice versa.
«The impact of the former, as potentially harmful as it may seem, lies purely in the mind of the listener. Not so for physical violence»
Popular
These are some all-time favorites with Refind users.
How Do They Know This?
An informative and apolitical new book reminds us that statistics are not always what they seem.
«But for the most part, official statistics are imperfect but good enough.»
Rethinking Authenticity
It is not a destination. It’s our ongoing life’s work as responsible adults.
Against Authenticity
To be human is to be artificial.
«We are profoundly social animals with brains designed to absorb and assimilate our surrounding culture, beginning most dramatically with language.»
Science and Civil Liberties: The Lost ACLU Lecture of Carl Sagan
Around 1987, Sagan gave an uncannily prescient lecture to the Illinois state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Is Moral Expertise Possible?—A Roundtable
Is moral expertise really a thing—normatively, theoretically, or metaphysically? All three major Western schools of moral philosophy seem to think so, including virtue ethics, deontology, and…
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