I write about science as a mixed bag — in other words, I try to note its limits as well as its successes. Science and a modern sense of the rational have been around for more than three centuries, and by now it seems these ways of thinking would have triumphed, displacing all the old superstitions and bringing Shining Reason to rule over human affairs. But this  has not happened. Despite the takeover of government and academia by number-crunchers, policy wonks, and social scientists, society  remains anything but rational. The reason is simple: Humans are much more than number-crunchers.  Much deeper. More mysterious. Motivated by tangled, sometimes conflicting inner forces. It is time to recognize that fact and integrate it into our public policy-making. This terrific David Brooks op-ed, forwarded to me by my friend Mical Lewis, outlines the issue and points toward the rise of a new kind of humanism.