All entries by this author

Right to Discriminate Not Upheld *

Jan 9th, 2007 | Filed by

Some religious groups have said the laws will force them to promote gay sex.… Read the rest



Challenge to Gay Rights Law Fails 3 to 1 *

Jan 9th, 2007 | Filed by

Call to annul the regulations was defeated by 199 votes to 68.… Read the rest



Polly Toynbee on Interfaith Homophobia *

Jan 9th, 2007 | Filed by

Good reasons why the state should step back from infatuation with faith provision of social services.… Read the rest



Graffiti of the Wandjina not Allowed *

Jan 9th, 2007 | Filed by

Depicting the Wandjina without permission would traditionally have resulted in spearing.… Read the rest



ID is a Science *

Jan 9th, 2007 | Filed by

And ‘Darwinism’ is a religion.… Read the rest



Religions Unite in Opposing Gay Rights *

Jan 9th, 2007 | Filed by

And citing own ‘right’ to discriminate in provision of goods and services.… Read the rest



Fred Halliday on the World’s Twelve Worst Ideas *

Jan 9th, 2007 | Filed by

‘Post’-feminism, anti-secularism, no need for condoms, force is all ‘they’ understand.… Read the rest



Pat Robertson the Mad Mullah *

Jan 9th, 2007 | Filed by

Says god told him there would be mass killing in US late in 2007. God told me Pat’s a chump.… Read the rest



Archbishop gets Dewy-eyed Over Nazi Era *

Jan 9th, 2007 | Filed by

‘We had everything we wanted,’ says Jan Sokol mistily.… Read the rest



‘Desperate Crossing’ Gets Things Wrong *

Jan 8th, 2007 | Filed by

‘Instead of discussion and analysis of evidence, we see its mangling to conform with modern sentiment.’… Read the rest



Getting it all Wrong *

Jan 8th, 2007 | Filed by

By tutting at culture of conformity while conforming all the same.… Read the rest



Alain de Botton on Philosophy for Adolescents *

Jan 8th, 2007 | Filed by

‘The book ends with the reassuring news that philosophy can change your life for the better.’… Read the rest



Howard Gardner on Peter Kramer on Freud *

Jan 8th, 2007 | Filed by

‘No reader of Kramer alone would appreciate the extent to which Freud airs doubts.’ Hmm.… Read the rest



Moroccan Journalists Prosecuted for Jokes *

Jan 8th, 2007 | Filed by

Government says attacking religion is one of the most serious offences a journalist can commit. … Read the rest



Taboos

Jan 7th, 2007 1:31 pm | By

While we’re on the subject of biases and the difficulty of spotting one’s own (especially compared to the extreme ease of spotting everyone else’s) – Nigel later asked me a follow-up question for that interview he did at Virtual Philosopher, about just this issue. I didn’t see it until after he posted the interview, so I’ll post the q and a here, on account of relevance.

NW: Do you really believe we can eliminate our prejudices, the political, ideological and moral commitments that usually infect our judgements? I’m thinking of what Nietzsche said about how philosophers end up simply confirming their own prejudices under the guise of applying reason dispassonately…

OB: Well, I don’t really believe there’s any certainty

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Biases

Jan 7th, 2007 12:59 pm | By

Biases are just endlessly interesting, don’t you think? Apart from anything else they remind us (if we’re paying attention anyway) that we all have them; they’re like kidneys, or toenails; part of the standard issue equipment. In fact the idea that we’re too clever to have them (or anything like them) is one of them.

Social and cognitive psychologists have identified a number of predictable errors (psychologists call them biases) in the ways that humans judge situations and evaluate risks. Biases have been documented both in the laboratory and in the real world, mostly in situations that have no connection to international politics. For example, people are prone to exaggerating their strengths: About 80 percent of us believe that

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Hubble Telescope Data on Dark Matter *

Jan 7th, 2007 | Filed by

Suggest an invisible scaffold around which the ordinary matter of stars and galaxies has formed.… Read the rest



Kahneman and Renshon on Why Hawks Win *

Jan 7th, 2007 | Filed by

People have deep decision-making biases, and almost all favor conflict rather than concession.… Read the rest



Utopian Dreams Ultimately Maddeningly Vague *

Jan 7th, 2007 | Filed by

Tobias Jones fails to interrogate the doctrinal element of religion.… Read the rest



Martha Nussbaum on Public Philosophy *

Jan 7th, 2007 | Filed by

US a difficult place for public philosophy because the media are so sensationalistic and anti-intellectual.… Read the rest