School promotes equality between men and women; she feared other Muslim girls would come under pressure.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Judge Rejects Challenge to School Niqab Ban
Feb 21st, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSchool’s head hopes the student will now return and resume her education.… Read the rest
William Paley’s Wonderful Watch
Feb 21st, 2007 | By Ian MacDougallSocrates, though all too mortal, gave us a reasoned argument that the soul is immortal. It is all there in Plato’s Phaedo.
I first read Plato in 1957, as a sixteen-year-old student of one of the most formidable intellects Scotland has ever produced: John Anderson, Sydney University’s Challis Professor of Philosophy.
Anderson had studied mathematics and physics at the University of Glasgow before switching to philosophy rather late in his time as an undergraduate. The son of a village schoolmaster, he spoke with a well-modulated Scots burr, and with his grey hair and a thick moustache was to my mind the very model of a professor. His contemporary Bertrand Russell had also started in mathematics and physics, but where Russell … Read the rest
Misogyny 6, women 0
Feb 21st, 2007 11:49 am | By Ophelia BensonOh, god. I feel sick. I feel like screaming. I do, I feel like screaming and screaming and screaming.
… Read the restAn Islamic fundamentalist shot and killed a female Pakistani minister yesterday because of her refusal to wear a Muslim veil. Police said that the bearded attacker had singled out the prominent women’s rights activist in the belief that women should not be in politics. Zilla Huma Usman, the Punjab provincial minister for social welfare and supporter of President Musharraf, was shot as she prepared to address a public gathering in the town of Gujranwala…As party members threw rose petals at her, the gunman shot her in the head, police said. They identified the attacker as Malulvi Ghulam Sarwar and said
Good and better
Feb 20th, 2007 2:49 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe opening of Steven Weinberg’s review of The God Delusion made me muse on something, not for the first time.
Of all the scientific discoveries that have disturbed the religious mind, none has had the impact of Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. No advance of physics or even cosmology has produced such a shock…[A]mong the natural phenomena explained by natural selection were the very features of humanity of which we are most proud. It became plausible that our love for our mates and children, and, according to the work of modern evolutionary biologists, even more abstract moral principles, such as loyalty, charity and honesty, have an origin in evolution, rather than in a divinely created soul.
There is … Read the rest
To dream the impossible dream
Feb 20th, 2007 1:27 pm | By Ophelia BensonSo tell me something I don’t know.
A report of the American Psychological Association (APA) released today found evidence that the proliferation of sexualized images of girls and young women in advertising, merchandising, and media is harmful to girls’ self-image and healthy development…Sexualization was defined by the task force as occurring when a person’s value comes only from her/his sexual appeal or behavior, to the exclusion of other characteristics, and when a person is sexually objectified, e.g., made into a thing for another’s sexual use.
How could it not be harmful, for chrissake? What would it be, beneficial? How could it possibly be beneficial? Unless of course your dearest ambition from infancy on is to be a prostitute, and … Read the rest
Stan Persky on Dawkins and Baggini on God
Feb 20th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Though I don’t agree with believers, I have considerable empathy for their yearnings.’… Read the rest
LA Zoo Hires Feng Shui ‘Expert’
Feb 20th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonShe has already made some changes to an enclosure to ‘maximise good energy.’… Read the rest
Sexualization Of Girls Linked to Problems
Feb 20th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonReport found evidence that the proliferation of sexualized images is harmful to girls’ healthy development.… Read the rest
Gay Nigerians Respond
Feb 20th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonProposed law would create criminal penalties for advocating gay rights.… Read the rest
Nigerian Humanist Defends Gay Rights
Feb 20th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIslamic law professor said sometimes the minority should be destroyed in order to protect the majority.… Read the rest
Put Turkana Boy in the Back Room
Feb 20th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonEvangelical bishop demands that Kenya’s national museum post notice saying evolution is not a fact.… Read the rest
Diocese Considers Bankruptcy to Avoid Trial
Feb 20th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOn more than 140 lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by priests. … Read the rest
Alok Jha on a Worked-up Ethical Debate
Feb 19th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOpposition to creation of animal-human hybrid embryos for stem cell research is irrational.… Read the rest
Hossein Derakhshan on Internet Censorship in Iran
Feb 19th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMany reformist-backed websites were filtered in the past couple of years.… Read the rest
Arizona Bill Would Forbid Academics to
Feb 19th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAdvocate ‘one side of a social, political, or cultural issue that is a matter of partisan controversy.’… Read the rest
Can You Do Philosophy on a Weblog?
Feb 19th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNigel Warburton says one of the best ways of conceptualising blogs is as published commonplace books.… Read the rest
Dominionists are Different From Fundamentalists
Feb 19th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonChris Hedges argues that dominionism is ur-Fascism.… Read the rest
Partial Free Secondary Education in Uganda
Feb 19th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMany students have been dropping out of secondary school because of the high cost of school fees.… Read the rest
Whither blogging?
Feb 19th, 2007 11:31 am | By Ophelia BensonNigel Warburton’s comment on an article about philosophical blogging that I wrote for the current TPM is amusing, at least to me.
In a recent article in The Philosophers’ Magazine (1st quarter 2007, no.37, p.12-14) Ophelia Benson (recently interviewed for Virtual Philosopher), opens up with the question of whether weblogs are somehow incompatible with ‘the rigour, discipline, and seriousness of real, grown-up philosophy?’ To me this is a bit like asking whether ink on paper is compatible with philosophy – apart from Socrates, most philosophers have agreed that it is.
I know. It was meant to be. In fact I think that’s almost obvious, especially given the ‘real, grown-up philosophy’ – that’s not a perfectly straightforward bit of reportorial phrasing. … Read the rest