And an…interesting former FBI agent.… Read the rest
Used to be axiomatic among progressives
Feb 8th, 2007 1:53 pm | By Ophelia BensonOliver Kamm coments on that interview David Thompson did with your humble windbag the other day. I know, that was a week ago, but I get behind in these things – deadlines, you know. He wonders about that thing I wondered about and probably Johann wondered about and possibly Jerry wondered about and maybe some other people – people who liked Why Truth Matters for instance – wondered about. What’s a liberal neocon? Who is one?
He says something very good, too, in reply to an inanity from good old ‘Islamophobiawatch:
… Read the restThe only editorial amendment I would make to your headline would be to enclose the word “Islamophobia” in inverted commas, as I have just done. The notion that this
Farther into the swamp of cultural relativism
Feb 8th, 2007 1:35 pm | By Ophelia BensonThose German-Turkish women rock. Necla Kelek tells Ian Buruma what’s what.
Reading his response to Pascal Bruckner’s essay “Enlightenment fundamentalism or racism of the anti-racists?” one is tempted to say to Ian Buruma, “If only you had kept quiet!” He clearly felt himself caught out, and despite his insistence to the contrary, his reply only leads him further into the swamp of cultural relativism…Ash and Buruma are quite typical in their argumentation, and virtually exemplary in their politically dubious cultural relativism…[Buruma] maintains that one cannot make generalised statements about Islam, as Ayaan Hirsi Ali does. That is a rather astonishing statement from a man who is…a professor of democracy and human rights.
Astonishing but, as Kelek says, all too typical. … Read the rest
Nigel Warburton Interviews Julian Baggini
Feb 8th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThought experiments help clarify and stimulate our thinking, but rarely, if ever, actually prove anything.… Read the rest
Necla Kelek Replies to Ian Buruma
Feb 8th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHe says one cannot make generalised statements about Islam; astonishing from a professor of human rights.… Read the rest
Mixing Up Ontology and Epistemology Again
Feb 8th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonYes, there is a reality out there; no, there is no ready-made truth of things. Keep up.… Read the rest
Charlie Hebdo Editor Defends Publication
Feb 8th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonEditor Philippe Var told the Paris court the cartoons were criticising ‘ideas, not people.’… Read the rest
Meghnad Desai: Islam or Islamism?
Feb 8th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘The roots of this new terrorism are not in religion but in a political ideology which uses religious language.’… Read the rest
Charlie Hebdo Trial ‘Under Anti-racism Laws’
Feb 8th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOrganisations suing for ‘public insults against a group of people because they belong to a religion.’… Read the rest
Communities Secretary Notices a Problem
Feb 8th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Government has relied too much on engagement with traditional leadership organisations.’… Read the rest
Is Morality Hard-wired?
Feb 8th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMarc Hauser and other researchers do experiments to find out.… Read the rest
Cohere, dammit!
Feb 8th, 2007 8:54 am | By Ophelia BensonIt’s good that they’ve figured it out at last, but they do make me laugh while they’re doing it, sometimes.
The government must rely less on Muslim leadership organisations, Ruth Kelly said yesterday…The communities secretary said: “There are many people in Muslim communities who are already taking a brave stand…this new, more local approach will help reach directly into communities…”
In other words, the communities secretary used the word ‘communities’ several hundred times in the course of a short announcement. Oh well – I suppose it’s only to be expected.
… Read the rest“In the past, government has relied too much on engagement with traditional leadership organisations.” But there is concern in the Muslim community that the government is marginalising groups which
The libidinal pleasure of gazing at torture
Feb 7th, 2007 2:34 pm | By Ophelia BensonJohann Hari has some thoughts on the Chapman brothers.
… Read the restIn 2003, the Chapmans bought some of Goya’s original prints – and vandalised them. Where Goya drew with documentary clarity the agonised victims of war, the Chapmans painted the jeering faces of clowns and puppies over them. “Goya’s the artist who represents the kind of expressionistic struggle of the Enlightenment with the ancien regime,” Jake Chapman explained, “so it’s kind of nice to kick its underbelly.” Goya famously said “the sleep of reason produces monsters”. The Chapmans say the opposite: it is when reason is wide awake that it produces monsters…The Chapmans trashing Goya is a pure expression of postmodernist philosophy. They vandalise and ridicule the fruits of reason –
Why are atheists atheists?
Feb 7th, 2007 2:32 pm | By Ophelia BensonSo Julian turns up on Comment is free.
If there’s one thing philosophers are not in short supply of it’s confidence and self-esteem…The unexamined life, we are fond of repeating, is not worth living. It sounds very noble, until you realise that the subtext is that not only are the Big Brother-watching masses unfit for existence, but even those engaged in less fundamental academic pursuits are lower forms of life.
But is that the subtext? It depends how you decide what a subtext is, I guess (the subness of a subtext gives a certain leeway for accusing people of saying things they haven’t actually literally said, which can be interesting but unfair or fair but uninteresting or various other … Read the rest
Jake Chapman’s Impressive Reply
Feb 7th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonLiterary castration…cheap fat-faced ugly four-eyed shot…shoddy thoughtcrimes…Hari is a fascist.… Read the rest
Johann Hari on the Chapman Brothers
Feb 7th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Jake Chapman has declared that “the Enlightenment project…virulently infects the earth”.’… Read the rest
David Thompson on Phantom Guilt Syndrome
Feb 7th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonPolitics as taking umbrage can end up with ideology unmoored from external reality.… Read the rest
Julian Baggini on Poppycock About Socrates
Feb 7th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘If teachers really were subjecting toddlers to Socratic grillings, the child protection agency would be onto them like a shot.’… Read the rest
David Thompson’s Review Unedited
Feb 7th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAnything that deviates from a sanitised depiction of Muhammad can arouse extraordinary indignation.… Read the rest
David Thompson on ‘The Truth About Muhammad’
Feb 7th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonA tradition of hagiography and censorship has created a woefully inadequate picture.… Read the rest