Sen sees identity as a personal choice that must be guided by a process of careful reasoning.… Read the rest
Student Admits ‘Little Red Book’ Story Was a Hoax
Dec 26th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe skeptical librarians were right. Well done, skeptical librarians.… Read the rest
Women Punished for Causing Tsunami
Dec 25th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSharia police force modelled on Saudi moral enforcers subjects women to public humiliation. … Read the rest
Seven Up
Dec 24th, 2005 7:05 pm | By Ophelia BensonA tag by Norm. Sevens.
Seven things to do before I die:
1) Go to Italy. 2) Write a book. 3) Participate in electing a rational, non-corrupt, thoughtful, educated, articulate, disciplined adult as president of the US. 4) Refrain from running a marathon. 5) Convert the pope to atheism. 6) Read all those books I should have read by now and haven’t. 7) See women achieve full and ineradicable human rights and equality everywhere on the planet.
Seven things I cannot do:
1) Play the cello. 2) Rock-climb. 3) Let it go. 4) Chinese calligraphy. 5) Help it. 6) Fly. 7) Keep things tidy.
Seven things that attract me to blogging:
1) It’s like writing in a notebook except … Read the rest
Nadia Urbinati on Seyla Benhabib
Dec 24th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe tension between the claims of national self-determination and universal human rights.… Read the rest
Rorty Reads Ian McEwan’s Saturday
Dec 24th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Thinking small is not the novel’s motto; it is its subject.’… Read the rest
Carl Elliott on Bioethics and Conflicts of Interest
Dec 24th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIndustry-funded bioethicists should not be writing the guidelines under which their own activities will be regulated. … Read the rest
Steve Fuller on ‘Intelligent Design’
Dec 24th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Darwin’s biography projects the politically correct image of a Christian who loses his faith through scientific inquiry.’ Eh?… Read the rest
Christian Reconstruction
Dec 24th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Those who refuse to submit publicly…must be denied citizenship.’… Read the rest
Our Minds Are Our Own – Except in Wales
Dec 23rd, 2005 8:11 pm | By Ophelia BensonWhat was that we were saying about theocracy?
More than half the secondary schools in Wales inspected in the past four years break the law by failing to pray every day, a BBC survey has revealed. All state schools should hold an act of worship each day, either for all pupils in assembly or as a class-based prayer…The 1944 Education Act promised lessons for children up to the age of 15, created grammar, technical and secondary modern schools – and also placed worship at the heart of school life. The 1988 Education Reform Act strengthened the legislation, further defining worship in schools as wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character.
Well there’s liberty of thought for you. There’s … Read the rest
Many Welsh Schools Break Law by Not Praying
Dec 23rd, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonState schools are required to ‘worship’ every day.… Read the rest
Wal-Mart Fined for Refusing Workers Lunch Breaks
Dec 23rd, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonPlans to appeal.… Read the rest
New Rousseau Biography
Dec 23rd, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonPassionate eloquence about cardiology.… Read the rest
A University Librarian Wonders
Dec 23rd, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonShort of a court order or National Security Letter, libraries would never report on a student’s reading habits. … Read the rest
UMass Dartmouth Library Statement
Dec 23rd, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe Library has not been visited by agents seeking information about borrowing patterns of patrons.… Read the rest
Is ‘Little Red Book’ Story a Hoax?
Dec 23rd, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonLibrarians commenting on this article are skeptical.… Read the rest
Asymmetry
Dec 22nd, 2005 8:50 pm | By Ophelia BensonSome more Pharyngula.
… Read the restHe’s exactly right about one thing: all the people on his little enemies list say terrible things about religion. Speaking for just myself, I don’t like it at all—I think it’s a bad idea to afflict a society with an institution dedicated to opposing critical thinking, the acceptance of dogma, and belief in unsupported and frankly, ludicrous claims. I’m going to express my detestation often and without reservation here, as the others in that list have done in their own venues. So? Is this an opinion we are not allowed to have? Does it make us unfit to speak on science or philosophy? Is it more offensive than the frequently stated and rarely questioned Christian opinion
Interview With Arthur Danto
Dec 22nd, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe impulse to make art is as powerful as it’s ever been.… Read the rest
Literary Canon Posher Than Literary Spreadsheet
Dec 22nd, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCanon debates are really over the economy of prestige within academic institutions.… Read the rest
Richard Shusterman on a Philosophe Impolitique
Dec 22nd, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBourdieu has shown he can mobilize trade unions and social movements, not just graduate seminars.… Read the rest