Who lied, which one vacillated, who shed crocodile tears over Vietnam?… Read the rest
All entries by this author
History is Confusing
Jan 23rd, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonEvidence conflicts, minds change, memory errs, wishes interfere.… Read the rest
Top Ten Books for Orwell-readers
Jan 23rd, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonD.J. Taylor’s choices include Gissing’s New Grub Street… Read the rest
Wonderfully Unsettles the Mind
Jan 22nd, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHesperus Press publishes minor works by major authors.… Read the rest
Fundamental Epistemology
Jan 22nd, 2004 | By Cassandra L. Pinnick"A more fundamental project now confronts us. We must root out sexist distortions and perversions in epistemology, metaphysics, methodology and the philosophy of science-in the “hard core” of abstract reasoning thought most immune to infiltration by social values."
Discovering Reality, Sandra Harding and Merrill B. Hintikka (1983)
Until roughly the mid-twentieth century, liberal feminist politics had little apparent impact on American universities. But thereafter the transformation was swift. Throughout the second half of the twentieth century, student demographics shifted, women’s studies flourished, and remarkable reforms to the liberal arts curriculum became entrenched. There was no surprise when feminist theory moved into the humanities or the “soft” sciences. And, these days, the radical edge is worn off the idea of … Read the rest
Investment Tips
Jan 22nd, 2004 1:43 am | By Ophelia BensonI’ve been reading a volume of the letters of Dwight Macdonald lately. One bit I read this morning seemed particularly appropriate for B&W. It’s from a letter in December 1937, to Freda Kirchwey, the editor of the Nation, taking that magazine to task for a number of blind spots, such as being too ‘timid and stuffy-genteel’ in its editorial attitude to the New Deal’s recent swing to the right, and particularly for being hostile to the Commission that was investigating the Moscow Trials (he doesn’t mention John Dewey but I assume that’s the Commission usually known as the Dewey Commission).
… Read the restWhile I was at Fortune, the Nation was always to me the great symbol of honest, truthful, intelligent journalism
What Accounts for Cheating?
Jan 21st, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonRational choice? Emotions? Values? Winner-take-all economies?… Read the rest
‘Cowboy Cloners’ Should be Outlawed
Jan 21st, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHead of Royal Society and others appeal to media not to publicize claims.… Read the rest
Brief Constructed Response
Jan 21st, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOr paragraph, in the vernacular. Eduspeak jargon is Fun Happy Talk.… Read the rest
Before After Theory
Jan 20th, 2004 9:19 pm | By Ophelia BensonThis is an interesting review by Elaine Showalter of Terry Eagleton’s new book After Theory.
In the ’80s, theory ruled, and the subject formerly known as literature was banished or demoted in the interests of philosophy and aesthetic abstraction.
Hmm. But was it really philosophy? Or was it just little bits of philosophy here and there. That’s fine, it’s no crime to know only a little about something, that’s certainly my situation about almost everything – but one has to be clear about it. One has to be careful, it seems to me, not to confuse sampling philosophy with really studying it, and one has to be equally careful not to confuse Literary Theory with philosophy, because (this is … Read the rest
US v WHO on Sugar and Obesity
Jan 20th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonUS accused of diluting dietary advice to please sugar lobby.… Read the rest
Showalter on Eagleton
Jan 20th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonTheory and nontheory. Nontheory? You know, poems, stories, plays.… Read the rest
Fairy Tales Equate Beauty with Goodness
Jan 20th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNot a news flash, but worth pointing out all the same.… Read the rest
National Book Critics Circle Nominations
Jan 20th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonScott McLemee receives Citation for Excellence in Reviewing.… Read the rest
Not all Skepticism is Good Skepticism
Jan 19th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCarl Zimmer on how extinction skeptics get it wrong.… Read the rest
Is the Self a Narrative?
Jan 19th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNo, there are other ways to think about it, says Galen Strawson.… Read the rest
Cot Death Trials Review
Jan 19th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia Benson258 cases of parents found guilty of killing a child to be reviewed.… Read the rest
Eat Your Sugar
Jan 18th, 2004 7:24 pm | By Ophelia BensonThis sounds familiar, doesn’t it? We’ve read articles like this before? Only a few days ago in fact? The subject does seem to keep coming up. The Bush administration and profit-making entities on the one hand, and scientific advice and knowledge on the other. Bulldozers make better habitats than rivers do; wetlands pollute; academic scientists who receive grants should be kept off federal peer review panels while scientists with ties to profit-making entities should not. Day is night, up is down, black is red. Do we begin to detect a pattern here?
… Read the restThe President insists fighting fat is a matter for the individual, not the state. But today The Observer reveals how he and fellow senators have received hundreds
Grayling on Jung
Jan 18th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe pseudo-scientific psychological theories of Freud and Jung are of little interest now.… Read the rest
Jung’s Concepts Empirical not Speculative?
Jan 18th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHunger for meaning not always compatible with wish to be a scientist.… Read the rest