People who think it’s fact should be herded into a crop circle and beaten with The Bible Code.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Declinism in France
Aug 12th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘so out of breath, so indebted, so closed in its own prejudices’ – narratives of decline are fun.… Read the rest
Another Myth Shot Down
Aug 12th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Marco Polo did not go to China, okay? He read some books he found in Persia. … Read the rest
The Repatriation Issue
Aug 12th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Critics angered by assertion of tribal rights over needs of science and knowledge.… Read the rest
Now Wait Just a Minute
Aug 11th, 2004 6:29 pm | By Ophelia BensonWell now really. I can’t just leave this sort of thing sitting there unopposed. It would be a dereliction of duty. I like jokes and provocations as well as the next person, but there is a limit. There are some things up with which I shall not put, to paraphrase Winny.
Or is the objection that he lacks self-knowledge; he should realise he isn’t very bright – if he isn’t – and, therefore, not have stood for the presidency? If so, let’s have a reality check here. Bloggers are hardly paragons of self-knowledge…And, anyway, since when does a lack of self-knowledge justify the kind of opprobrium levelled at Bush?
What have bloggers got to do with anything? Is that the … Read the rest
Leave Dubya Alone
Aug 11th, 2004 4:19 pm | By Ophelia BensonIf I don’t dislike George Bush as much as the next guy, I certainly dislike him enough to have stayed up all night on US election night, worrying about chads, and hoping for a Gore victory.
But what I don’t get is how come he gets so much flak for supposedly not being very bright? If it’s true, how exactly is it his fault? Is it okay, then, to attack the intellectually challenged simply because they are intellectually challenged (Madeleine Bunting notwithstanding)?
Or is the objection that he lacks self-knowledge; he should realise he isn’t very bright – if he isn’t – and, therefore, not have stood for the presidency? If so, let’s have a reality check here. Bloggers are … Read the rest
Evidence for Social Brain Theory
Aug 11th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Did humans evolve large brain to negotiate and manipulate complex social relationships?… Read the rest
Is Islam Religion or Political Ideology?
Aug 11th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Both. ‘Religion is what makes Islamic political ideology so dangerous.’… Read the rest
Education for its Own Sake or for a Job?
Aug 11th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Gradgrind, Clarke; golf course management or utterly purposeless history study.… Read the rest
Cloning of Human Embryos Given Go Ahead
Aug 11th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Just wait for the complaints of religious maniacs…… Read the rest
Style – Communication or Self-expression?
Aug 10th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Truth-telling, therapy, sharing? Facts, beauty?… Read the rest
Reply to Holland
Aug 10th, 2004 | By Frederick CrewsIs psychoanalysis a science? The Spring/Summer 2005 issue of The Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine (vol. 9, no. 1) will contain a debate on the scientific merits of psychoanalysis. The exchange will include a 2000-word summary by the literary critic Norman N. Holland of his essay “Psychoanalysis as Science”; a 1000-word critique by Frederick Crews; a reply from Holland to that critique; and a commentary on both submissions by the psychiatrist Peter Barglow. Holland’s full essay can already be found on the Web here. In anticipation of the SRAM publication, concerned readers may be interested in an early view both of Holland’s summary version and of Crews’s response to the longer piece. The editor of SRAM has granted permission … Read the rest
Open the Door
Aug 9th, 2004 10:16 pm | By Ophelia BensonThought for the day. It’s from Meera Nanda’s Prophets Facing Backward again. I may even have quoted this particular passage before – but if I don’t remember, you won’t either, and nobody ever reads old N&Cs, so it doesn’t matter. And anyway this is worth quoting often. It’s from the Preface, page xii.
… Read the restHaving grown up in a provincial town in Northern India, I considered my education in science a source of personal enlightenment. Natural science, especially molecular biology, had given me a whole different perspective on the underlying cosmology of the religious and cultural traditions I was raised in. Science gave me good reasons to say a principled ‘No!’ to many of my inherited beliefs about God, nature, women,
Paranoia at Historians’ Convention
Aug 9th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Does Keith Windschuttle have an agenda or is he merely pointing out mistakes?… Read the rest
Is Al-Jazeera Biased? More Than Others?
Aug 9th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Is an Arab-language satellite news network funded by US Congress ‘the free one’?… Read the rest
Phallocentric Theorizing When It’s at Home
Aug 9th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Acephalic Litter as a Phallic Letter’ – and that’s not a parody!… Read the rest
Come Back to the Raft Ag’in, Martin Honey
Aug 9th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Two guys, a long river trip, Heidegger: now playing at your local cinema.… Read the rest
Psychoanalysis as Science
Aug 9th, 2004 | By Norman N. HollandAbstract
Current objections to psychoanalysis as untestable and unscientific ignore two facts. First, a large body of experimental evidence has tested psychoanlaytic ideas, confirming some and not others. Second, psychoanalysis itself, while it does not usually use experimentation, does use holistic method. This is a procedure in wide use in the social sciences and even in the “hard” sciences.
Psychoanalysis as Science
My essay, “Psychoanalysis as Science” [1] makes two points. One, although ignored in the “Freud wars,” experimenters have in fact generated much empirical evidence for the validity of at least some of psychoanalysis’ theory of mind. The oft-repeated mantra, “There is not a shred of scientific evidence for psychoanalysis,” is simply false. Two, part of the devaluing of … Read the rest
Name the Pseuds Contest
Aug 9th, 2004 2:08 am | By Ophelia BensonI’m laughing maniacally again – and it’s Norm who’s made me laugh again. With his entry for the name the pseuds contest. Prof Ursula LeTofu Thinberry and Dr Doug D. Void. Yep, I like those very much.
There is also José’s entry: ‘Judith Lucelia Etchegaray’ and ‘Jacques Alain Babha-De Ritta’. I like those very much too. The competition for that copy of Of Grammatology is going to be fierce. Except from my colleague, of course; his silly suggestion I just pass over in silence.
Norm also made me laugh with his deeply profound ruminations on the meaning of the ‘cartoon’ and what its referent really really is.
… Read the restI was wondering whether one might deconstruct the notion that the cartoon represents
Beyond a Reasonable Certainty
Aug 9th, 2004 1:52 am | By Ophelia BensonThis story is interesting in more than one way.
Prof Southall accused Stephen Clark, a solicitor, of smothering his two babies on the basis of a 50-minute Channel 4 Dispatches documentary on the case…The paediatrician said Mr Clark was a double murderer “beyond reasonable doubt”, although he had not read any of the papers in the case, spoken to the parents or seen post mortem reports.
Beyond reasonable doubt – because he watched Clark on TV. Hmm.
… Read the restProf Southall refused to apologise and repeated the allegation during the disciplinary hearing. Denis McDevitt, the chairman of the GMC panel, said he was “extremely concerned” by Prof Southall’s actions. “Your view was a theory, which was, however, not presented as a theory