Magicians often rely on misdirection to fool their audience. A common way to achieve this is for the magician to provide a plausible and intuitive (but false) account of how an effect is performed in order to prevent spectators from uncovering the truth. We hypothesized that analytical thinkers would be more likely than intuitive thinkers to seek alternative explanations when observing a mental...

The aim of the paper is to present and analyze the interpretation of the Enlightenment which has recently been proposed by Jonathan Israel, with the focus on its philosophical aspect as opposed to the historical one. The paper consists of two parts. The task of the first part is reconstructive: it attempts to explore Israel’s most characteristic statements concerning the Enlightenment. The seco...

Peter the Great brought technological enlightenment to Russia. In his lifetime, two special schools for training engineers were established, the Engineering School in 1700, and the Mathematical-Navigation School in 1701. Peter the Great introduced engineering training into other institutions as well, not only into the Naval Academy, but also regimental schools and even religious colleges. (See ...

I discuss the historical and conceptual roots of reasoning about the parameters of fundamental physics and cosmology based on selection effects. I argue concretely that such reasoning can and should be combined with arguments based on symmetry and dynamics; it supplements them, but does not replace them. * Summary talk at " Expectations of a Final Theory " , Trinity College, Cambridge, Septembe...