A discussion of the academic motivation of adolescents. It addresses: self-efficacy and adolescents' motivation; situating motivation in sociocultural contexts; rewards and intrinsic motivation - a needs-based developmental perspective; and perceived peer norms and the need to be accepted.

Rationality is widely regarded as being at odds with the very concepts of metaphysics and transcendence. Yet it is easy to forget that the thinkers who pioneered rationality and the scientific method did not subscribe to this view. For instance, Aristotle described God as the source of reason in Eudemian Ethics, and Newton and Galileo both believed that our ability to investigate the world scientifically has a divine origin.