All entries by this author

US Witholds Funds From UN Population Agency *

Jul 18th, 2004 | Filed by

Lack of evidence no bar to decision that will cost lives.… Read the rest



‘What is not possible is not to choose’ *

Jul 18th, 2004 | Filed by

Julian Baggini on the Kanto-Sartrean background of political emphasis on autonomy.… Read the rest



Quotations

Jul 17th, 2004 11:35 pm | By

Interesting. I was about to type up a quotation from Simon Blackburn for something I’m working on, and before doing so thought I might as well check our Quotations in case we already had it there (then I would only need to copy it instead of typing). We don’t, but we do have one that is pleasingly relevant to the subject we’ve been discussing lately, along with Brian Leiter. So I thought I would put it here. It’s from Prospect, April 2003.

It is not the slavish remnant of a religious worldview to admit that the person who has gone and looked is more of an authority than one who has not. It is not just convention which

Read the rest


What Dictionary?

Jul 17th, 2004 11:03 pm | By

Ah good. Amazon has corrected the little oddity whereby it named the alphabetically first author of the Fashionable Dictionary and disappeared the alphabetically second one. I filled out the correction thing last week, but it looks as if Amazon has also heard from the publisher, because the jacket flap copy is now on the page, which it wasn’t last week. So here is the page. You can order your copy or copies right now, thus making a first printing of fifty thousand copies necessary. Or at any rate you can admire the page, and the jacket copy, and the presence of two names instead of just one, and the mention of B&W. Or you can just roll your eyes … Read the rest



Royals Have Reason to Fear Modernity *

Jul 17th, 2004 | Filed by

Change is hazardous for the next incumbent of an office built on mystical tradition and continuity. … Read the rest



US Scientists Forbidden to Attend AIDS Conference *

Jul 17th, 2004 | Filed by

‘It is anti-intellectual and it is interfering with scientists and the scientific process’… Read the rest



What Did the Zimbardo Experiment Really Show? *

Jul 16th, 2004 | Filed by

That power corrupts? Or that subjects try to please the experimenter?… Read the rest



Arrogance

Jul 15th, 2004 7:13 pm | By

This is a nice bit of dovetailing, of convergence, of two minds with but a single thought, of – okay, we get the idea. Brian Leiter was talking about different examples of exactly the same kind of thing I was talking about two days ago, in ‘Close Reading’. The Little Professor noticed the parallel. Leiter’s post is really interesting; it touches on several issues I have on my sort of mental list of things to discuss sometime. It quotes Andrea Lafferty, director of something called ‘the Traditional Values Coalition’ (oh please) saying ‘There’s an arrogance in the scientific community that they know better than the average American.’ Well – uh – yeah. Because they probably do, ya know? Seeing as … Read the rest



Stupid Guy Thinks ‘Alice’ is a Girly Book *

Jul 15th, 2004 | Filed by

So he wanted revenge: ‘to rewrite it as a book boys would also enjoy.’… Read the rest



Science is Revisable *

Jul 15th, 2004 | Filed by

Stephen Hawking has changed his mind about an aspect of black holes.… Read the rest



Moral Maze Discusses Religious Hatred Law *

Jul 15th, 2004 | Filed by

Johann Hari, Steven Rose, Claire Fox and others.… Read the rest



Princes and Wheels *

Jul 15th, 2004 | Filed by

Too much speed and hard work, not enough Wiccans and stillness, don’t you agree?… Read the rest



‘Arrogance’ and Knowledge

Jul 15th, 2004 | By Brian Leiter

Andrea Lafferty, executive director of the Traditional Values Coalition, a conservative religious organization, delivers what could be the signature line for our backwards times in America:

There’s an arrogance in the scientific community that they know better than the average American.

In fact, of course, scientists do know quite a bit better than the “average American” about the matters for which their scientific expertise equips them. Those with knowledge, surprisingly, know more than those who are ignorant. Is that arrogance?

As Chris Mooney remarked, “science is not a democracy,” and in a democratic culture, that inevitably becomes a cause of resentment, as Ms. Lafferty’s comment attests. This resentment of competence was first made vivid to me when I appeared … Read the rest



Water and the West Bank *

Jul 14th, 2004 | Filed by

More science and less religious fundamentalism would be better for Israelis and Palestinians.… Read the rest



Solution to African Food Crisis is Multifaceted *

Jul 14th, 2004 | Filed by

Better science education, more research, better roads, communication.… Read the rest



Ken Livingston and Pro-Hijab *

Jul 14th, 2004 | Filed by

Yusuf al-Qaradawi got a standing ovation. Hurrah for the hijab.… Read the rest



Martha Nussbaum on Sexual Torture at Gujarat *

Jul 14th, 2004 | Filed by

Women as nation, objectification, and disgust.… Read the rest



Good Moves

Jul 14th, 2004 2:27 am | By

That’s quite amusing. I wrote the comment below before I read Julian’s new Bad Moves, which also has partly to do with Prince Charles’ medical expertise compared with that of mere, you know, medical experts.

The strict dietary regime in question is the Gerson Therapy, which eschews drugs in favour of coffee enemas and fruit juices. It has the support of well-known medical experts such as Prince Charles, interior designer Dudley Poplak and Lord Baldwin of Bewdley. Their opinions, of course, carry more weight than those of the American Cancer Society, which warns that the treatment could be dangerous.

Pure coincidence, that. And then he goes on to make an excellent point about language that helps question-begging to do … Read the rest



Close Reading

Jul 13th, 2004 11:48 pm | By

I re-read an article yesterday or Sunday that I kept wanting to do a comment on as I read it. Line by line, even word by word, in places. I wanted to comment not just on the article as a whole, but on each bit of sly rhetoric as I read and noticed it. Not a macro-comment but a micro one, not an overall comment but a close-up.

And that reminded me, in an almost nostalgic, sentimental way, of the beginning of N&C. In September or October 2002, when we were thinking about and discussing what to include on B&W, what features to add. It reminded me that we didn’t exactly think of N&C as a blog, at first, or … Read the rest



NSS Says Blunkett’s Religious Law is Dangerous *

Jul 13th, 2004 | Filed by

National Secular Society on invitation to religious fanatics to use courts to silence critics.… Read the rest