The shift from logic to history, and the perennial appeal of irrationalist programs.… Read the rest
Fashionable nonsense has been with us since the time that prehistoric man first transcribed Of Grammatology on to the walls of the Lascaux caves. Here we cast an eye back at some historical highlights.
Durkheim on Religion
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The way to ‘reject the insipid relativism of the tabula rasa without denying or ignoring the freedom and variability of individual human beings and their cultures.’… Read the rest
Why Lit-crits want economists to sound more like lit-crits.
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Paul Krugman draws an interesting parallel with Stephen Jay Gould.… Read the rest
Historic Conference in Chicago
March 2000
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Conference brought Armenian
and Turkish scholars together for the first time to discuss the 1915 genocide.… Read the rest
More Than 500 Arguments for the Existence of God
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT
(1) Check out that tree. Isn’t it pretty?
(2) Therefore, God exists.… Read the rest
Rigoberta Menchu
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Whenever you’re told that you shouldn’t look into something, for some people, that is a very clear directive that you ought to keep looking.’… Read the rest
Meera Nanda on the Case for Indian Enlightenment
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Meera Nanda had good reasons to fight against patriarchal, upper-caste Hindu traditions that would have suppressed all she valued. Science was not ‘elitist’ or Western but a way of life and a philosophy for social action.… Read the rest
Steven Weinberg on the Sokal Hoax
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
No, linear doesn’t mean what pomos think it means.… Read the rest
A Moral Argument for Atheism
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Slaughter of innocents, human sacrifice, eternal torture – it’s all there.… Read the rest
Report on Resistentialism
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Betrousered, two-eyed philosopher Ventre considers a world in which Things are Against Us.… Read the rest
Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
When cultures are organized around controlling and using women, is blanket respect for Other cultures such a good idea?… Read the rest
‘Frontline’ on Alternative Medicine
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Alternative to what? Testing and evidence?… Read the rest
Norman Levitt on Kennewick Man.
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
NAGPRA is a well-intentioned piece of legislation that has grown into a monster of anti-scientific bias.… Read the rest
Please, No More Glamorama
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
James Wood on the grim outlook for social realism and ‘hysterical realism’, which may allow a space for the aesthetic and the contemplative again.… Read the rest
Anthropologists sharpen their knives
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Anthropologists are trained to appreciate cultural differences, but they can’t stand it within their own profession.’… Read the rest
Hitchens on Contrarianism
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Among his many weapons are a forensic curiosity, a vast learning, a savage wit, a commanding intellect, an international perspective and a moral authority that is built on something sturdier than cheap moralising.’… Read the rest
Human Rights and Asian Values
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Dissent is part of all cultures, Asian decidedly included.… Read the rest
Fifteen Answers to Creationist Nonsense
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Some antievolutionists admit that they intend for intelligent-design theory to serve as a “wedge” for reopening science classrooms to discussions of God. … Read the rest
Eagleton on Fish
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘A superficially historicist, materialist case – our beliefs and assumptions are embedded in our practical forms of life – leads not only to a kind of epistemological idealism, but to the deeply convenient doctrine that our way of life cannot be criticised as a whole.’… Read the rest
NAGPRA and the Demon-haunted World
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
NAGPRA proceeds from an antievolutionary perspective grounded in fundamentalist religious belief.… Read the rest