Lord Desai tells NH of worrying sectarianism in fundamentalist ‘human rights’ group.… Read the rest
No, Enron is not an Aberration
May 26th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAccounting games, excessive CEO pay, huge amounts of corporate corruption remain.… Read the rest
What Mind-body Problem?
May 26th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonConsciousness has had philosophers hot and bothered ever since Nagel’s bat essay.… Read the rest
After Freud
May 26th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonFreud’s model of repression emerged out of the age of the steam train. … Read the rest
Where’s Canute?
May 25th, 2006 5:35 pm | By Ophelia BensonNo thanks, no more religious politics, we’ve had more than enough, in fact we’re likely to be sick on the carpet any minute now.
Michael Kazin cites the historian D.G. Hart’s argument that religion is “inherently useful in solving social problems because it yields moral guidelines that inevitably generate both a concern for justice and the welfare of all people.”
Susan Jacoby takes that ludicrous remark down, but I want to do some taking down too. Religion yields moral guidelines that inevitably generate a concern for the welfare of all people? Meaning a concern for the welfare of all people here on this earth as opposed to in God’s pretty summerhouse? How does that explain the caste system then? … Read the rest
Consensus
May 25th, 2006 4:53 pm | By Ophelia BensonThen again, JS has clarified his point a little, and it does seem like a point worth making.
…the kind of naturalistic worldview that most
materialists embrace, and the scientific methodology that goes with it,
rules out of court my kind of experience as a datum to be explained.
Therefore, if my kinds of experiences do exist, and if they also have
naturalistic explanations, they’re never going to be discovered, because the
“it must be a coincidence because it could be a coincidence” response or the
“ah but the testimony is necessarily suspect” response are both
unfalsifiable.
Again, I thought that was common knowledge – but maybe I was wrong to think that. I thought it was common knowledge that … Read the rest
Complacency
May 25th, 2006 2:42 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe discussion of special powers seems to have ended, but it raised some interesting epistemic issues, at least I think so; so I’ve thought about them a little more. I think there was a basic, unresolvable problem at the center of the discussion in that JS’s experience was (naturally enough) very convincing to him, but (also naturally enough) not at all convincing to anyone else except perhaps me, and not all that convincing even to me. I think JS didn’t make enough allowance for the fact that there was simply no reason at all for B&W readers to take his account at face value – although he seemed to have made allowance for that, in that he said he’d expect … Read the rest
Abuse Plagues Muslim Women in Germany
May 25th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonForced marriages often turn into violent homes. … Read the rest
Happy Birthday J S Mill
May 25th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMissouri town enforces family values via law against unmarried couples with children.… Read the rest
Conflicting Opinion Drives Scientific Advance
May 25th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonA further step down a well defined road wins easier acceptance than a deviation from the beaten track. … Read the rest
Susan Jacoby Says No Thanks to Goddy Politics
May 25th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonFramers of the Constitution did not write, as they might have, ‘we the people under God’.… Read the rest
35th Skeptics’ Circle
May 25th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHosted by a creationist guest.… Read the rest
Rhetoric
May 24th, 2006 11:25 pm | By Ophelia BensonRhetoric. Funny how quickly people reach for it. Well, no it’s not, because it works, but you’d think people would have a little shame. But they don’t.
This ‘trustee and spokesman for the Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health’ for instance. He’s not shy about it.
… Read the restThe row was stirred last night when the Prince of Wales made a groundbreaking speech to the World Health Assembly in Geneva, outlining his philosophy of holistic care to an audience of the world’s health ministers. He urged every country to develop a plan for integrating conventional and alternative medicine. “Many of today’s complementary therapies are rooted in ancient traditions that intuitively understood the need to maintain balance and harmony with our minds, bodies and
More on Hirsi Ali
May 24th, 2006 7:50 pm | By Ophelia BensonHitchens doesn’t agree with that Ian Buruma piece on Hirsi Ali I commented on the other day.
… Read the restIan Buruma said that Ayaan Hirsi Ali ought to have spoken out more for those who had been denied asylum in the Netherlands…This point doesn’t seem to me to carry much weight. If she had become the spokeswoman for other refugees, her own story of making a partially false application could (and would) have been used against her even more. Instead, she pointed out that many perfectly legal immigrants to Holland were trying to import dictatorship rather than flee from it, and for this she attracted lethal hatred…Hirsi Ali calls for a pluralist democracy where all opinion is protected but where the law
Ally of Prince C Calls Signers ‘Clinical Barons’
May 24th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDirector of Royal Homeopathic hospital said doctors’ attitude amounted to ‘medical apartheid’.… Read the rest
Doctors Criticize Bogus Treatments
May 24th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonLetter from 13 doctors seen as challenge to Prince C’s campaign for ‘complementary therapies’.… Read the rest
Petition in Support of Ayaan Hirsi Ali
May 24th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHoma Arjomand, Maryam Namazie, Irshad Manji, Caroline Fourest have signed.… Read the rest
Dworkin on Cost-benefit Analysis of Human Rights
May 24th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWe insist on these rights even though the majority would be more comfortable if we ignored them.… Read the rest
Some Remarks
May 23rd, 2006 6:48 pm | By Ophelia BensonLet’s just look at a few comments.
From Flemming Rose:
Dictatorships in the Middle East and radical imams have adopted the jargon of the European left, calling the cartoons racist and Islamophobic. When Westerners criticize their lack of civil liberties and the oppression of women, they say we behave like imperialists. They have adopted the rhetoric and turned it against us…Yet multiculturalism that has all too often become mere cultural relativism is an indefensible proposition that often justifies reactionary and oppressive practices. Giving the same weight to the illiberal values of conservative Islam as to the liberal traditions of the European Enlightenment will, in time, destroy the very things that make Europe such a desirable target for migration.
From … Read the rest
Old Norm and Young Nick at Euston
May 23rd, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSuccess of Euston Manifesto suggests there is a vein of rational progressivism on the left.… Read the rest