All entries by this author

We Underestimate Our Bias, Overestimate Theirs *

Apr 19th, 2006 | Filed by

Brain cannot see itself fooling itself, so the only way to avoid bias is to avoid situations that produce it. … Read the rest



NUT Rejects Vote Against ‘Faith’ Schools *

Apr 19th, 2006 | Filed by

Proposals in government bill could give ‘faith groups’ a much bigger role in running of schools. … Read the rest



A Cant-free Voice

Apr 18th, 2006 8:09 pm | By

Read any Dwight Macdonald? If not you should. He’s a good one.

I take exception to all this.

But you can’t dine on clippings and the bones of old controversies, so what did his versatile output amount to after decades of pounding the typewriter? For years…Macdonald had been…frustrated, fatigued and plagued by the feeling that he had failed to climb the masthead of his talent by writing a major, original work – bringing out a real book, not just a basket of articles.

That’s a stupid opposition – a real book as opposed to a ‘basket’ of articles. As if there is some Platonic Ideal length, as if there is some magic that makes sixty thousand words on the … Read the rest



Hizb ut-Tahrir and the National Union of Students *

Apr 18th, 2006 | Filed by

NUS president-elect says rhetoric may have changed, but they are still homophobic, sexist, racist.… Read the rest



A Call to Reduce Religions’ Role in Schools *

Apr 18th, 2006 | Filed by

Delegates attending NUT conference concerned at influence of fundamentalists in state schools.… Read the rest



Macdonald a Critic of the Left From Within *

Apr 18th, 2006 | Filed by

Would have agreed with Trilling’s praise of Hawthorne’s ‘dissent from the orthodoxies of dissent.’… Read the rest



Gordon Wood on Why History Matters *

Apr 18th, 2006 | Filed by

A society whose best students have a thin understanding of its past is a society in trouble.… Read the rest



Dwight Macdonald *

Apr 18th, 2006 | Filed by

A singular, wised-up, cant-free voice that is pure intelligence at play.… Read the rest



Academics on TV *

Apr 18th, 2006 | Filed by

They risk the Carl Sagan effect, but they can make knowledge more widely available.… Read the rest



The Gospel of Judas: Exclusive

Apr 18th, 2006 | By R Joseph Hoffmann

Fresno, CA: Following hard on the heels of the commercial success of the Da
Vinci Code and forty three books about Mary Magdalene, news of the finished
translation of a gospel attributed to Judas Iscariot, known to history as the
betrayer of Jesus, received mixed reactions in the scholarly and religious
communities last week.

Vatican spokesman Archbishop Heiko Vitali wasted no time in dismissing the
discovery as yet another example of how scholars are willing to believe
“proven heresies.”

“What do we know about Judas? That he was a liar. So even if this gospel came
from his hand–as I’m sure it did not–it would be just another big lie,” said
Vitali.

His sentiments were echoed by the head of … Read the rest



Cultural Anthropology 101

Apr 17th, 2006 9:37 pm | By

Martin Jacques has some thoughts on globalization, or on one version of globalization anyway. He starts with Ruth Benedict’s The Chrysanthemum and the Sword.

Benedict, a cultural anthropologist, was assigned by the US office of war administration to work on a project to try and understand Japan as the US began to contemplate the challenge that would be posed by its defeat, occupation and subsequent administration. Her book is written with a complete absence of judgmental attitude or sense of superiority, which one might expect; she treats Japan’s culture as of equal merit, virtue and logic to that of the US. In other words, its tone and approach could not be more different from the present US attitude

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Democracy as Cultural Imperialism *

Apr 17th, 2006 | Filed by

Should we say that arbitrary arrest, torture, slavery are not ruled out by universal principles? … Read the rest



Alain Finkielkraut on Fanatics Without Borders *

Apr 17th, 2006 | Filed by

Opposition to humanitarian intervention is becoming more and more peremptory and strident.… Read the rest



Whither the Village Voice? *

Apr 17th, 2006 | Filed by

Investigative reporter fired, two prize-winning writers quit, months after New Times Media merger.… Read the rest



Sunday Herald Interviews Todd Gitlin *

Apr 17th, 2006 | Filed by

‘Without opposition, without dissent, politics cease and democracy dies.’… Read the rest



Carlin Romano on Amos Oz on Fanaticism *

Apr 17th, 2006 | Filed by

‘But this is clearly humanistic mush.’… Read the rest



Hilary Mantel Reviews a Biography of Robespierre *

Apr 17th, 2006 | Filed by

Why was his purity fatal? Because it seemed to be absolute.… Read the rest



Keep Your Instruments of Cohesion

Apr 16th, 2006 9:39 pm | By

The New Statesman provides a partial antidote.

One ally, Andrew Copson of the British Humanist Association, is dismissive of the vogue for New Age thinking and the popularity of vaguely “spiritual” schools…Copson’s association has about 6,000 members, but it claims as kindred spirits, at the least, the many people of no religion who do not specifically identify themselves as humanists. These people need a voice, he argues, because of the continuing prevalence of the notion that religions have a superior morality. “Charles Clarke [the Home Secretary] gave a speech the other day saying that faith gives people values,” Copson says. “There’s an attempt to use faith as an instrument of cohesion. But other people are not valueless.” The philosopher

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Endless Supply

Apr 16th, 2006 7:31 pm | By

Yet more kack; the rabbi hands the kack-distribution duty over to a bishop.

There is a paradox about the current bout of media atheism.

Oh yes, the current bout of media atheism. How about the ongoing drip drip drip of media theism? Is there a paradox about that? In the fact that it keeps saying the same few untrue things over and over and over again, never fazed by voices whispering of bad arguments and troops of strawmen, and never able to find anything new to say?

The idea that faith and reason are inherently opposed to one another is a mantra that is mind-boggling in its lack of historical perspective. The fact is that all philosophers, ancient and

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‘Scientism’ Charge is the All-purpose Smear *

Apr 16th, 2006 | Filed by

When at a loss, say ‘you are making a religion of science.’… Read the rest