Demographic History
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This lecture gives a brief history of the young field of financial theory, which began in business schools quite separate from economics, and of my growing interest in the field and in Wall Street. A cornerstone of standard financial theory is the efficient markets hypothesis, but that has been discredited by the financial crisis of 2007-09. This lecture describes the kinds of questions standard financial theory nevertheless answers well....more
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Democracy and Participation: Rousseau, Discourse on Inequality (author's preface, part I)
Yale / Political Science
This lecture is an introduction to the life and works of Rousseau, as well as the historical and political events in France after the death of Louis XIV. Writing in a variety of genres and disciplines, Rousseau helped bring to fruition the political and intellectual movement known as the Enlightenment. Among his most important works is the Second Discourse (Discourse on Inequality), in which Rousseau traces the origins of inequality and...more
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In this lecture, Professor Paul Fry examines trends in African-American criticism through the lens of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Toni Morrison. A brief history of African-American literature and criticism is undertaken, and the relationship of both to feminist theory is explicated. The problems in cultural and identity studies of essentialism, "the identity queue," expropriation, and biology are surveyed, with particular attention paid to...more
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The bubonic plague is the measure by which succeeding epidemics have long been measured. Its extreme virulence, horrible symptoms, and indiscriminate victim profile all contributed to making plague the archetypical worst-case scenario. For these same reasons, the plague is also an ideal test case for the thesis that epidemic diseases play a major role in shaping human history. Over the course of its three pandemics, the plague had major...more
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In this introductory lecture, Professor Sylvia Ceyer introduces those throughout history who have contributed to the atomic theory of matter, beginning with Aristotle and Democritus, and ending with the work of Lavoisier, Proust, and Dalton. After disussing scanning tunnelling microscopy, Professor Ceyer moves to the major advances in chemistry at the end of the 19th century. These include Newtonian mechanics, thermodynamices,...more
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In this first lecture on the theory of literature in social contexts, Professor Paul Fry examines the work of Mikhail Bakhtin and Hans Robert Jauss. The relation of their writing to formalist theory and the work of Barthes and Foucault is articulated. The dimensions of Bakhtin's heteroglossia, along with the idea of common language, are explored in detail through a close reading of the first sentence of Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice....more
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In this lecture on queer theory, Professor Paul Fry explores the work of Judith Butler in relation to Michel Foucault's History of Sexuality. Differences in terminology and methods are discussed, including Butler's emphasis on performance and Foucault's reliance on formulations such as "power-knowledge" and "the deployment of alliance." Butler's fixation with ontology is explored with reference to Levi-Strauss's concept of the raw and the...more
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The idea that "life begins at conception" is not a scientific one. Since the disproof of 'spontaneous generation' (1668-1859), we have known that life only derives from life. Life arose billions of years ago and has continued since as a cycle. Assigning a beginning to a cycle (like the year) is arbitrary. The Bible describes the cycle as "Dust to Dust." Exodus describes a forced abortion as a property crime, but taking the life of the...more
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Throughout prehistoric, written, and recent history, human warfare has been commonplace. Nearly all societies engage in regular or periodic war. In many examples, human warfare has characteristics similar to chimpanzee war: an in-group fights with and kills members of the out-group. This information is not to be misinterpreted as either justifying human violence or considering it inevitable. When it comes to births and fecundity, though,...more
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Don Francis, a pioneer in the field of HIV/AIDS research, had a long history as a pediatrician and an employee of the CDC before he joined Genentech to develop an AIDS vaccine. He realized that the only way to truly combat AIDS was to develop a vaccine. He chose Genentech because it was the world leader on vaccines at that time, but he became disappointed when the development was not going anywhere and decided to start his own company.
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Rick Wallace shares the history of KLA-Tencor to show that it is important to follow one's business model. KLA revolutionized the industry by starting to charge for service instead of just offering it up for free. In order to enforce this, the founder had to risk losing IBM as a client. However, his bet paid off, and IBM finally agreed to pay for service. This has led to a large and profitable annuity stream for KLA-Tencor.
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Historically, thousands of people have given their lives to explore new frontiers on land and sea. And space entrepreneur and X PRIZE founder Peter Diamandis deeply believes that the world today is risk-adversive to its own detriment. True breakthroughs that expand scientific capability and history always take a tremendous amount of adventurous spirit, and real mavericks need to be audacious in order to discover greatness. Capitalize on...more
