It’s really not moving.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Philosophy Has Its Uses
Apr 8th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
When everything but pedophilia is negotiable, philosophy can help to ground ethics.… Read the rest
Huh Huh Huh Eeek Uh Uh Oooowaaah!
Apr 8th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Animal psychologists at London Zoological Society say we should talk like chimps.… Read the rest
Domain
Apr 7th, 2004 10:07 pm | By Ophelia BensonSomething more from that article by Paul Davies in the Atlantic, which answers a question I’ve been wondering about for a longish time.
Even if Homo sapiens as such may not be the unique focus of God’s attention, the broader class of all humanlike beings in the universe might be. This is the basic idea espoused by the philosopher Michael Ruse, an ardent Darwinian and an agnostic sympathetic to Christianity. He sees the incremental progress of natural evolution as God’s chosen mode of creation, and the history of life as a ladder that leads inexorably from microbes to man.
The question that’s been puzzling me is about Michael Ruse, because some of his work that I’ve read sounds quite … Read the rest
Richard Dawkins Set To Music
Apr 7th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
And a singer who doesn’t believe in evolution. You couldn’t make it up.… Read the rest
Rwanda Genocide and ‘African’ Correctness
Apr 7th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Emmanuel Dongala says solidarity can prevent people from speaking out.… Read the rest
Academics Hinder Fight Against Terror
Apr 7th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Attitudes formed in the 1960s have resulted in an anti-Americanism.… Read the rest
Local Elections in Iraq
Apr 7th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Secular candidates have done better than Islamists.… Read the rest
So You Think You’re Logical
Apr 6th, 2004 10:21 pm | By Ophelia BensonIn case anyone wants to find out about the Wason test along with PM, here it is in one easy click.
[Note by Jerry S (Sorry OB, I’m invading your entry!)]: I programmed this four years ago; I’d do it slightly differently if I was programming it today – there are a couple of problems with it. However, it is a pretty rigorous experimental design (on the analysis page, there’s a link with technical details about the ‘between-subjects’ and ‘within-subjects’ aspects of the design). And the results, right at the end, are interesting.… Read the rest
Awe, Shux
Apr 6th, 2004 10:16 pm | By Ophelia BensonHere is what one might consider another installment of an on-going discussion we’re having here about religion and the way its defenders and supporters and promoters and fans re-define it for purposes of persuasion or coercion. One example is from an article by Paul Davies in an old Atlantic (September 2003) I happened to read the other day: ‘E.T. and God.’ It’s basically about what the discovery of life elsewhere in the universe would mean for human religion, but along the way he makes this strange (yet very familiar) comment, after calling the dismissal of religion by the director of the SETI Institute’s Center for SETI Research ‘rather naive’:
… Read the restThough many religious movements have come and gone throughout history, some
Linguistic Relativity and Colour
Apr 6th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Sapir-Whorf or Berlin-Kay?… Read the rest
Leon Wieseltier on God in the Pledge
Apr 6th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Say “under God” even if you don’t mean under God.’… Read the rest
Is This Parody?
Apr 6th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Probably not. It certainly is funny though!… Read the rest
Anne Fadiman and American Scholar
Apr 6th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Editor is fired over budget issues; Todd Gitlin and others protest.… Read the rest
Examine That Life
Apr 6th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Carlin Romano considers two collections of brief memoirs by philsophers.… Read the rest
On Suffering and Waste
Apr 5th, 2004 9:11 pm | By Ophelia BensonWe were talking about Darwinism and morality, among other things. Here is George C. Williams in Plan and Purpose in Nature as quoted by Richard Dawkins in the title essay of A Devil’s Chaplain:
With what other than condemnation is a person with any moral sense supposed to respond to a system in which the ultimate purpose in life is to be better than your neighbour at getting genes into future generations,…in which that message is always ‘exploit your environment, including your friends and relatives, so as to maximise your genes’ success…?
Dawkins then quotes George Bernard Shaw doubting evolution because he didn’t like its cruelty, H.G. Wells rejoicing in the cruelty, and Julian Huxley trying to derive some … Read the rest
Jooglebomb
Apr 5th, 2004 5:19 pm | By Ophelia BensonAh. I see via Normblog and Twisty Sticks that I’ve been neglecting a duty. That’s what I get for reading hastily and selectively because I’m catching up because I’m so far behind because I’ve been working 28 hours a day on this dictionary thing because my colleague kept saying We have to finish in a month no two weeks no a week no three days no an hour no right now, so like Miss Clavell I ran fast and faster, and had such a backlog of reading and posting you would not believe. So, anyway. Jew.
In case there are any of you even more behind than I am, that’s a counter-googlebomb, a googlebomb to counteract an anti-semitic googlebomb. … Read the rest
Truth, Truths, ‘Truth’ and ‘Truths’
Apr 5th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Susan Haack on the ‘Passes-for Fallacy’ and more.… Read the rest
A Gathering of Straw People
Apr 4th, 2004 8:36 pm | By Ophelia BensonThere are a couple of discussions of Evolutionary Psychology at Twisty Sticks: one here and the other here. They’re interesting because of what appears to be a fairly unshakable assumption that all evolutionary psychologists have a right-wing agenda and that the agenda determines their conclusions. That’s probably true of some evolutionary psychologists – I think I’ve read one or two of those – but it’s not true of all of them. It’s a bit puzzling. It’s not easy to figure out why people are convinced that thinking natural selection might have played a part in making human nature what it is requires being a free marketeer. I’m not a free marketeer, and I think natural selection played a part … Read the rest
Another Angle on the Hijab
Apr 4th, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
What is France’s insistence on secularism about?… Read the rest