neuroscience

Adam Smith and Mirror Neurons Paper Published

Lynne Kiesling I mentioned a while ago my working paper on the neuroscience research on mirror neurons and its relevance for Adam Smith’s theory of sympathy developed in The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759). After revision and some extremely helpful referee guidance, the paper has been published in The Review of Austrian Economics: Mirror neuron …

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New Working Paper: Mirror Neurons, Adam Smith, and Sympathy

Lynne Kiesling Mirror neurons have captivated my attention for the past year. Think about the last time you were out walking around and smiling, and you noticed that others who saw you started smiling themselves (this happens to me all the time, is that strange?). Even that simple unconscious mimicry is triggered by our brain’s …

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Technological Developments Useful in Eventually Producing the Equivalent of Neal Stephenson’s “Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer”

Michael Giberson As any reader of Neal Stephenson’s book The Diamond Age knows, a Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer would be quite handy to have. Unfortunately, technology hasn’t quite advanced to the point necessary to actually produce such a thing. A recently published research report seems like one small step in the right direction. From a …

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Emergent Orders Are All Around Us, Especially in Cities

Lynne Kiesling Ron Bailey’s Hit & Run post, Ant Hills=Brains=Cities, reminded me of some really important, fundamental ideas that tend to get lost as we natter about financial regulation, health care regulation, climate regulation … Emergent orders abound, and occur at all sorts of different scales — molecular, cellular, all the way to complex social …

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