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coming up in Dædalus: Dædalus the global Steven E. Miller, Scott D. Sagan, Richard Lester & Robert Rosner, Dædalus nuclear future Paul L. Joskow & John E. Parsons, Harold A. Feiveson, Paul Doty, John W. Rowe, Robert Socolow & Alexander Glaser, Matthew Bunn, George Perkovich, Richard A. Meserve, William C. Potter, Sam Nunn, Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences Anne Lauvergeon, Thomas Isaacs & Charles McCombie, Atsuyuki Summer 2009 Suzuki, Thomas C. Schelling, Lawrence Scheinman & Marvin Miller, José Goldemberg, Sverre Lodgaard, Siegfried Hecker, Abbas Maleki, Mohamed Shaker, Jayantha Dhanapala, Anatoli Diakov, and Pierre Summer 2009: on being human Goldschmidt on being Introduction 5 human the future of news Loren Ghiglione, Jill Abramson, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Jack Fuller, Hilary Rose Donald Kennedy, Brant Houston, Robert Giles, Michael Schudson, & Steven Rose The changing face of human nature 7 Adrian Holovaty, Susan King, Herbert J. Gans, Jane B. Singer, and Michael S. Gazzaniga Humans: the party animal 21 others Robert B. Pippin Natural & normative 35 Ian Hacking Humans, aliens & autism 44 plus the challenge of mass incarceration in America, on the economy, Charles Darwin excerpt from The Descent of Man 60 on the military, on race &c. Harriet Ritvo Humans & humanists 68 Geoffrey Galt Harpham The science of language & human self-understanding 79 Kwame Anthony Appiah Experimental moral psychology 92 poetry Rita Dove The Countess Shares Con½dences over Karneval Chocolate 103 Cherishing Knowledge, Shaping the Future U.S. $13; www.amacad.org Building for the Twenty-First Century Inside front cover: A digital compos- ite of dna, evolution, and Darwin. Image © Images.com/Corbis. Steven Marcus and Jerome Kagan, Guest Editors Leslie Berlowitz and Geoffrey Galt Harpham, Contributing Editors Phyllis S. Bendell, Managing Editor and Director of Publications Micah J. Buis, Assistant Editor Board of advisers Steven Marcus, Editor of the Academy Rosanna Warren, Poetry Adviser Committee on Publications Jerome Kagan, Chair, Jesse H. Choper, Denis Donoghue, Linda Greenhouse, Jerrold Meinwald; ex of½cio: Emilio Bizzi, Leslie Berlowitz Dædalus is designed by Alvin Eisenman. Dædalus Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences Nineteenth-century depiction of a Roman mosaic labyrinth, now lost, found in Villa di Diomede, Pompeii Dædalus was founded in 1955 and established as a quarterly in 1958. The journal’s namesake was renowned in ancient Greece as an inventor, scientist, and unriddler of riddles. Its emblem, a maze seen from above, symbolizes the aspiration of its founders to “lift each of us above his cell in the labyrinth of learning in order that he may see the entire structure as if from above, where each separate part loses its comfortable separateness.” The American Academy of Arts & Sciences, like its journal, brings together distinguished individuals from every ½eld of human endeavor. It was chartered in 1780 as a forum “to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honour, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people.” Now in its third century, the Academy, with its nearly ½ve thousand elected members, continues to provide intel- lectual leadership to meet the critical challenges facing our world. Dædalus Summer 2009 Subscription rates: Electronic only for non- Issued as Volume 138, Number 3 member individuals–$41; institutions–$108. Canadians add 5% gst. Print and electronic © 2009 by the American Academy for nonmember individuals–$46; institu- of Arts & Sciences tions–$120. Canadians add 5% gst. Outside The changing face of human nature the United States and Canada add $23 for © 2009 by Hilary Rose & Steven Rose postage and handling. Prices subject to change Humans: the party animal without notice. © 2009 by Michael S. Gazzaniga Natural & normative Institutional subscriptions are on a volume- © 2009 by Robert B. Pippin year basis. All other subscriptions begin with Humans, aliens & autism the next available issue. © 2009 by Ian Hacking Single issues: current issue–$13; back issues Humans & humanists for individuals–$16; back issues for institu- © 2009 by Harriet Ritvo tions–$32. Outside the United States and How do we know what we are? The science of Canada add $5 per issue for postage and han- language & human self-understanding dling. Prices subject to change without notice. © 2009 by Geoffrey Galt Harpham Experimental moral psychology Newsstand distribution by Ingram Periodicals © 2009 by Kwame Anthony Appiah Inc., 18 Ingram Blvd., La Vergne tn 37086, and The Countess Shares Con½dences over Karneval Source Interlink Distribution, 27500 Riverview Chocolate Center Blvd., Bonita Springs fl 34134. © 2009 by Rita Dove Claims for missing issues will be honored free Editorial of½ces: Dædalus, Norton’s Woods, of charge if made within three months of the 136 Irving Street, Cambridge ma 02138. publication date of the issue. Claims may be Phone: 617 491 2600. Fax: 617 576 5088. submitted to [email protected]. Mem- Email: [email protected]. bers of the American Academy please direct all questions and claims to [email protected]. 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Printed in the United States of America by Fax: 617 258 5028. Email: journals-rights@ Cadmus Professional Communications, mit.edu. Science Press Division, 300 West Chestnut Street, Ephrata pa 17522. The typeface is Cycles, designed by Sumner Stone at the Stone Type Foundry of Guinda Postmaster: Send address changes to Dædalus, ca. Each size of Cycles has been sep arately 238 Main Street, Suite 500, Cambridge ma designed in the tradition of metal types. 02142. Periodicals postage paid at Boston ma and at additional mailing of½ces. Introduction The essays in this volume examine One of the world’s leading institutes some of the ways that we, in the ½rst for advanced research in the humani- decade of the twenty-½rst century, un- ties, the National Humanities Center derstand what it means to be human. was founded by the American Acade- It is a question that involves us, neces- my of Arts and Sciences in 1978. In the sarily, in the traditional concerns of late 1960s, two distinguished literary world religions and of the disciplines scholars, Meyer Abrams of Cornell we call “the humanities.” Increasingly, and Morton Bloom½eld of Harvard, it is also a driving question behind im- and philosopher Gregory Vlastos of portant scienti½c research. Princeton spent a year together at the Human distinctness has always been Center for Advanced Study in the Be- an implicit subject of scienti½c inquiry; havioral Sciences, where they found today’s scientists address the question themselves “three humanists in a sea explicitly. With an extraordinary range of social scientists.” They proposed of conceptual instruments, technologies, the creation of a similar institution and methodologies, they investigate for the humanities, to encourage excel- issues that Socrates once examined in lence in scholarship and to ensure the philosophical dialogue, Shakespeare continuing strength of the liberal arts in dramatic verse, and Michelangelo in American life. in paint and marble. Geneticists, neu- John Voss, then Executive Of½cer of roscientists, and psychologists now the American Academy, recognized the join philosophers, poets, and artists importance of the idea and invited liter- in seeking a more adequate description ary scholar Steven Marcus of Columbia of humanness. The results of this quest University to serve as project director. can be both exhilarating and dizzying Beginning with a small grant of $2,500 as we strive to integrate multiple per- from the Academy’s own research funds, spectives. Voss and Marcus organized a planning In 2006, the National Humanities committee that included sociologist Center launched a three-year study Daniel Bell, philosophers Frederick of how advances in science are enlarg- Burkhardt and Charles Frankel, classi- ing the terms through which human cist and president of Princeton Univer- life is discussed, and continuing to dis- sity Robert Goheen, and literary critic turb traditional understandings of what Lionel Trilling, among others. Initial it means to be human. The essays gath- grants from the Rockefeller, Ford, Car- ered here constitute a sampling of the negie, and Andrew W. Mellon Founda- scholarship inspired by the Center’s ef- tions, as well as from the National En- fort. This issue also marks the Center’s dowment for the Humanities, enabled thirtieth anniversary. the planning committee to develop the goals of the Center and create its new © 2009 by the American Academy of Arts home.