Lingua Franca, a magazine web site I mentioned in my previous post, is a delightfully academic place to browse. For example, the article titled "Mistaken Identity Theory" looks at eponymy, the practice of naming things after people (real or mythical) who are associated with them. The author points out that, in practice, they are usually named after the wrong people. In fact, Stigler's Law of Eponymy, which, in its simplest form, states that "no scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer," was actually formulated by a sociologist of science named Robert K. Merton, according to Stigler himself! The number of other examples given is surprising.
Humorous book reviews, too. Seinfeld and Philosophy: A Book About Everything and Nothing explores the philosophical underpinnings of the Seinfeld show.
Being a philosophical place, there is no section for science, but they do cover the history of science. Lingua Franca is a keeper. I'll bookmark it.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
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