All entries by this author

Science Wars: an interview with Alan Sokal

Aug 15th, 2002 | By Julian Baggini

Dennis Healey once compared a verbal attack by one of his parliamentary
colleagues to "being savaged by a dead sheep." I was reminded
of this remark when I met the physicist Alan Sokal, the man who,
along with mathematician Jean Bricmont, has caused outrage and indignation
among the French intelligentsia first with his spoof post-modern
article published in the journal Social Text, and then for
his and Bricmont’s book Intellectual Impostures, which
combines a catalogue of misuses of scientific terms by predominantly
French thinkers with a stinging attack on what they call "sloppy
relativism"

Given this history, you’d expect Sokal to be more lupine than lamb-like,
but in fact, he is a friendly, chatty, effusive figure more interested… Read the rest



Lay Sceptic’s Travels on Planet Energy

Aug 14th, 2002 | By Elina Rigler

Recently I have been feeling like a visitor on an alien planet: ordinary people
around me have started to communicate in a new, esoteric language. Let’s call
it Energyspeak. It uses the same vocabulary as Oldspeak (my native language),
but many of its words have been stripped of their usual meanings. Its speakers
also seem to inhabit a radically different metaphysical universe. They inform
me that there is a bioenergetic field flowing through and around us; and that
disturbances in it have dire consequences for our health. Those fluent in Energyspeak
pay regular visits to energy therapists (acupuncturists; homeopaths; reflexologists;
reiki healers) who are able to treat all kinds of physical and emotional problems
by correcting energy imbalances. I myself … Read the rest



Reputation *

Aug 10th, 2002 | Filed by

One of the three most important English language literary critics of the 20th century? Or is that a bit inflated.… Read the rest



Sums on snails *

Aug 10th, 2002 | Filed by

Francis Galton counted silly things.… Read the rest



Dawkins on Sanderson *

Aug 2nd, 2002 | Filed by

A Headmaster’s hatred of any locked door which might stand between a boy and some worthwhile enthusiasm shows what real education is.… Read the rest



Power to the Rich *

Jul 29th, 2002 | Filed by

Perhaps the most pro-business presidency the US has ever endured.… Read the rest



Amateur Journalism *

Jul 19th, 2002 | Filed by

What was lost in judiciousness was gained in verve.… Read the rest



Berkowitz on Rawls *

Jul 3rd, 2002 | Filed by

‘How can the moral law be both a fact of reason and in need of justification by faith?’… Read the rest



Philosophy and Biography *

Jun 10th, 2002 | Filed by

Is there any connection between the way we think and the way we live? Surely yes, but do biographers know what the connections are?… Read the rest



Dawkins or Gould *

Jun 9th, 2002 | Filed by

What is and what is not at issue in the disagreements.… Read the rest



Darwin and Jesus mix? *

May 10th, 2002 | Filed by

Michael Ruse says they can.… Read the rest



Aesthete *

May 8th, 2002 | Filed by

Cynthia Ozick believes stories occupy a realm separate from life, and that includes politics.… Read the rest



Hitchens on Amis Major *

May 2nd, 2002 | Filed by

Kingsley Amis thought of boredom as a form of tyranny.… Read the rest



Meritocracy *

Apr 20th, 2002 | Filed by

Philosophers and political theorists disagree with popular belief that special rewards are deserved.… Read the rest



Gitlin Meets Fallows *

Apr 15th, 2002 | Filed by

And they talk about media saturation.… Read the rest



Interrogations Archive

Apr 12th, 2002 | By Editor

Mutability

High and Outside

A Local Habitation and a Name

Behind the Mask

On Difference

Reality Check

What Have We Here?

Pay Attention

In Memoriam

The Way We Live Now

The Right Tools

Tap Tap

Desert Island Dreams

Local Intelligence

Convention

Choosing Consciousness

Do I Wake or Sleep

Work

Mystery, Drama, Surprise

Other Minds

Influence

Mere

Done and Not Done

Weave a Net to Catch the Wind

Mind the Gap

Sense and Sentimentality

Gustave and Dawn

Who’s In There?

Thinking Makes It So

Showtime

Homo Quaerens

Perfection Isn’t

Self and InternetRead the rest



Middle Mind *

Dec 10th, 2001 | Filed by

Funny, ruthless dissection of the ‘Fresh Air’ mindset.… Read the rest



Dwight Macdonald *

Nov 30th, 2001 | Filed by

Right when he said no, wrong when he said yes.… Read the rest



Lingua Franca *

Nov 20th, 2001 | Filed by

Judith Shulevitz on making a magazine weird.… Read the rest



Multiculti lite *

Nov 19th, 2001 | Filed by

A global education? Or merely a little Arundhati Roy here, a little Toni Morrisson there.… Read the rest