She feels more edgy and disconcerting than many contemporary children’s writers. … Read the rest
All entries by this author
Le Monde Interview with Derrida
Oct 9th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDangerously ill, but writing and talking nonetheless.… Read the rest
Jacques Derrida est Mort
Oct 9th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonLe Monde says Derrida was French philosopher best known abroad, especially in US.… Read the rest
Derrida’s Dead
Oct 9th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHe died on Friday. He was suffering from pancreatic cancer.… Read the rest
Churches Launch Climate Campaign
Oct 9th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNot yet clear what role God will be playing.… Read the rest
The Restorative Power of Jesus Christ
Oct 8th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAnd the refusal of contraceptives to unmarried women. Great appointment.… Read the rest
The War on Science, Bush Division
Oct 8th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAuthor of As Jesus Cared for Women appointed to reproductive health drugs advisory committee of FDA.… Read the rest
Hostage Ken Bigley Has Been Murdered
Oct 8th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThree weeks of nightmare end in more nightmare.… Read the rest
Nonsense
Oct 8th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHistory is not just a ‘story’ and neither is journalism.… Read the rest
Poetry Day
Oct 7th, 2004 8:51 pm | By Ophelia BensonChris at Crooked Timber points out that it’s National Poetry day in the UK, and gives his favourite Shakespeare sonnet. I don’t have one favourite, because there are too many, though if I did have to pick one I decided it would be either 116 or 29. Either ‘Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediment’ or ‘When in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes.’ But there are several other top favourites, which I shared with the lucky readers of CT, so I’ll share them with our readers too.
Like as the waves make toward the pebbled shore
and
When I have seen by Time’s fell hand defaced
and
Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless … Read the rest
All That Ink
Oct 7th, 2004 7:38 pm | By Ophelia BensonAnd sometimes I just waste my time. Inevitable, no doubt – but disconcerting when it happens. There I was this morning reading away at David Bloor, and making notes. Scribble scribble eh Mr Gibbon. I made a longish note about the way he uses the word ‘conventional’ and what a tricky word it can be. It implies a ‘mere’ but convention isn’t always mere. For instance, it’s true enough to say, as Bloor, and Barnes and the Strong Programme in general, do say, that the rules and criteria of science are conventional, but it doesn’t follow that they’re merely conventional. ‘One can have knowledge or findings,’ I pointed out sagely to myself, ‘that are conventional without being mere. In fact … Read the rest
Friends of America’s Past on NAGPRA Amendment
Oct 7th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonTwo little words – ‘or was’.… Read the rest
More on the NAGPRA Amendment
Oct 7th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe law could get even worse, and it’s already bad.… Read the rest
Physical Anthropologists on NAGPRA
Oct 7th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCulturally unidentifiable remains are an issue.… Read the rest
Archaeologists Support NAGPRA Amendement
Oct 7th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBad news.… Read the rest
Cass Sunstein on the Second Bill of Rights
Oct 6th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAre social and economic rights foreign to a laissez-faire culture?… Read the rest
Education is not for Massaging Self-esteem
Oct 6th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAnd art is not for improving community relations.… Read the rest
A New Introduction to Philosophy
Oct 6th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonJonathan Derbyshire reviews Philosophy: The illustrated guide.… Read the rest
Show Us Your Biceps, Mister
Oct 5th, 2004 7:00 pm | By Ophelia BensonTime for another of those exercises when I quote a few passages from interesting (if eccentric) thinkers. Today’s examinee is David Bloor, one of the founding whatsits of the ‘Strong Programme’ at Edinburgh University. A few sentences from the opening page of his influential book Knowledge and Social Imagery:
Can the sociology of knowledge investigate and explain the very content and nature of scientific knowledge? Many sociologists believe that it cannot….They voluntarily limit the scope of their own enquiries. I shall argue that this is a betrayal of their disciplinary standpoint…There are no limitations which lie in the absolute or transcendent character of scientific knowledge itself, or in the special nature of rationality, validity, truth or objectivity.
That’s from … Read the rest
Susan Jacoby on Secularism Under Threat
Oct 5th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe messianic radicalism of the assault on separation of church and state.… Read the rest