[{"id":311526,"date":"2026-09-16T14:45:31","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T18:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/?p=311526"},"modified":"2026-09-16T06:48:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T10:48:17","slug":"this-philosopher-thinks-its-time-we-call-out-evil-in-our-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/3quarksdaily\/2026\/09\/this-philosopher-thinks-its-time-we-call-out-evil-in-our-world.html","title":{"rendered":"This Philosopher Thinks It\u2019s Time We Call Out Evil in Our World"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jennifer Szalai in the New York Times<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\"\"Susan Neiman has noticed a paradox. \u201cAs the world drifts toward disaster,\u201d she writes in her new book, \u201cour language has become more cautious.\u201d Yet this tentativeness has been remarkably asymmetrical. President Trump loves to use hyperbole (\u201cnasty,<\/a>\u201d \u201csleazebag<\/a>,\u201d \u201cvermin<\/a>\u201d), while establishment Democrats have, at least until recently, mostly hewed to the language of decorous risk aversion.<\/p>\n

In \u201cCall It Evil: Understanding the Trump Era,\u201d Neiman argues that widespread misapprehensions about what evil is make people too reluctant to use the word. Despite her willfully provocative title, she categorically states: \u201cThis is not a book about Donald Trump.\u201d An American-born moral philosopher now based in Germany, Neiman wrote an incisive\u00a0history of evil in modern thought<\/a>\u00a0in 2002. Her new book is less a philosophical exploration than a polemical guide to the current moment. She believes that people are so attached to understanding evil in terms of individual monstrousness \u2014 the gleeful villain, the depraved sadist \u2014 that they lose sight of how evil more typically works.<\/p>\n

More here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jennifer Szalai in the New York Times: Susan Neiman has noticed a paradox. \u201cAs the world drifts toward disaster,\u201d she writes in her new book, \u201cour language has become more cautious.\u201d Yet this tentativeness has been remarkably asymmetrical. President Trump loves to use hyperbole (\u201cnasty,\u201d \u201csleazebag,\u201d \u201cvermin\u201d), while establishment Democrats have, at least until recently,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5918],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-311526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recommended-reading","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311526"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":311529,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311526\/revisions\/311529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":311523,"date":"2026-09-16T13:45:47","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T17:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/?p=311523"},"modified":"2026-09-16T06:43:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T10:43:25","slug":"scientists-map-massive-layer-of-life-just-beneath-our-feet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/3quarksdaily\/2026\/09\/scientists-map-massive-layer-of-life-just-beneath-our-feet.html","title":{"rendered":"Scientists map massive layer of life just beneath our feet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Frank Jacobs at Big Think<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\"\"We\u2019ve logged and named almost every fold of the visible world. And yet until June, the most extensive piece of infrastructure on the planet had not been extensively mapped. This network is larger than every road, cable, and shipping lane combined. And it\u2019s\u00a0alive<\/em>.<\/p>\n

o be precise: It\u2019s fungal. This underground network is made of so-called\u00a0hyphae<\/em>: hair-thin filaments that knit together into vast structures known as\u00a0mycelium<\/em>. A large fraction of these fungi form partnerships with the roots of plants and trees. Roughly 70% of all botanical species indulge in these relationships.<\/p>\n

Think of these relationships, also known as\u00a0mycorrhizae<\/em>, not so much as tender friendships, but as shrewd trade agreements: Both parties get something indispensable out of it. The plant can make sugar from sunlight, but is bad at foraging. So the fungus provides phosphorus, nitrogen, and water. The fungus is a foraging superhero, but cannot photosynthesize. So the plant repays the fungus in carbon.<\/p>\n

More here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Frank Jacobs at Big Think: We\u2019ve logged and named almost every fold of the visible world. And yet until June, the most extensive piece of infrastructure on the planet had not been extensively mapped. This network is larger than every road, cable, and shipping lane combined. And it\u2019s\u00a0alive. o be precise: It\u2019s fungal. This underground…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5918],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-311523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recommended-reading","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311523"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":311525,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311523\/revisions\/311525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":311520,"date":"2026-09-16T12:45:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T16:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/?p=311520"},"modified":"2026-09-16T06:38:42","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T10:38:42","slug":"middlemarch-george-eliots-hegelian-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/3quarksdaily\/2026\/09\/middlemarch-george-eliots-hegelian-world.html","title":{"rendered":"Middlemarch: George Eliot’s Hegelian World"},"content":{"rendered":"