US National Academy of Sciences report says there is no connection.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Theory of Mind
Jun 4th, 2004 1:12 am | By Ophelia BensonAnimal cognition seems to be in the air this month. I read a review by Frans de Waal of two books on the subject a few days ago, and today find that one along with two more at SciTech. Each is about one of the books that de Waal reviews, so the three together make an interesting comparative package, and they’re all interesting in themselves.
This one on Clive D.L. Wynne’s Do Animals Think? is not only interesting but also quite amusing.
… Read the restStudents in the first-year university philosophy classes that I teach often believe that their dogs, cats, budgies, and goldfish are thinking pretty much the same thoughts they are. Unfortunately, some of them are right, I point out
South Africa, Zimbabwe, Human Rights
Jun 3rd, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Mbeki governent could do more to pressure Mugabe, critics say.… Read the rest
A Boffin is an Engineer
Jun 3rd, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
People who are fascinated by the possibility of making something happen.… Read the rest
Nietzsche in the Movies on ‘Front Row’
Jun 3rd, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
B&W columnist talks about eternal recurrence and A Fish Called Wanda.… Read the rest
Meaning
Jun 2nd, 2004 10:00 pm | By Ophelia BensonI’ve been thinking about religion and the arguments people use to defend it, again. Or more likely I’ve never stopped. It’s a line of thought that shrinks or expands, that takes up a position in the middle of the living room or creeps into the back of a closet, depending on what I’ve heard or read lately, but it probably never goes away entirely, never actually packs the wheely suitcase and marches away into the sunset (which would be inadvisable from here, actually, because you would drown). Anyway I’ve been thinking about it. I’ve been thinking about the idea that religion has something to do with humans’ desire for meaning – that religion does something about that desire. Satisfies it, … Read the rest
Eve Garrard on Amnesty International
Jun 2nd, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Are violations of human rights by liberal democracies worse than greater ones elsewhere?… Read the rest
How Language Can Shape Thought
Jun 2nd, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Philip Stott on the metalanguage of ecology.… Read the rest
Novel Without Verbs, Review Ditto
Jun 2nd, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Scott McLemee in satiric vein, boneless chickens, queasy sensation.… Read the rest
Tolkien Studies: Pop Culture or Scholarship?
Jun 2nd, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Tolkien himself was a scholar, but his fans are more like Trekkies.… Read the rest
Majority-Minority
Jun 1st, 2004 8:30 pm | By Ophelia BensonThere is a lot lurking behind this question (as there so often is with questions of this kind) about what is more interesting – the widespread acceptance of a given social practice or custom, or the minority dissent from it. For one thing there is the comparison or analogy with everyday life and with present politics, reform, ideas of progress and improvement. Looked at in that way, it may be said that at least in some ways the reformist side is more interesting than the pro-status quo side. That’s almost a truism, or what Jerry S calls in that scholarly way of his that I can never hope to emulate, an argument by definition. Imagine to yourself a conversation. X … Read the rest
Is the Ubiquitous Interesting?
Jun 1st, 2004 1:55 pm | By Ophelia BensonSome people find inter-blog disputes tedious, other people fun. And no doubt many people who claim to find them tedious actually find them fun. But this at least is a dispute about a substantive matter…
So to business. Ralph on Clio. He claimed, a while ago, on B&W:
“When something is ubiquitous, the interesting question isn’t ‘how could it have been tolerated?’ because it was commonly and widely accepted.”
I think this is very silly. Ralph objects to my thinking it very silly. He says:
… Read the restI made the claim in the context of a discussion of slavery and its ubiquity in the early modern world. Explaining the presence of pro-slavery arguments in a world in which slavery was ubiquitous is
What About Apes, Do They Think?
Jun 1st, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Nathan Emery reviews Intelligence of Apes and Other Rational Beings.… Read the rest
Do Animals Think? How Much? What About?
Jun 1st, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Stan Persky reviews Clive D.L. Wynne’s Do Animals Think?… Read the rest
Frans de Waal on Animal Cognition
Jun 1st, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Do animals have a theory of mind?… Read the rest
Twelve Ways to be a Philosopher
Jun 1st, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Puns, promissory notes, ethical conundrums about Nazis, personal jargon.… Read the rest
Rorty on Wolin on Postmodernism
May 31st, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Spirited and informative, but neglects the arguments.… Read the rest
Liberalism is 10,000 Years Old
May 31st, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
It’s about learning to live and to trade with strangers.… Read the rest
John Gray on Richard Wolin on Postmodernism
May 31st, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘just another shot fired in the unending American culture wars.’… Read the rest
Sontag and Kael
May 31st, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Trash, frivolity, seriousness, moral pleasure, respectability.… Read the rest