No jeans allowed; women wearing jeans are arrested, forced to put on long skirt and forfeit their jeans.… Read the rest
In philosophy ‘certainty’ has a specific meaning
May 28th, 2010 12:17 pm | By Ophelia BensonJim at Apple Eaters sees Pessin’s ‘paradox’ the way I do.
… Read the restMan, there is so much sloppiness here that I want to bite something. First, in philosophy “certainty” has a specific meaning, and it means that there is no doubt. If that’s not what Pessin has in mind, he should define the term. The point there is that, even if I recognize that I am fallible and capable of mistakes, I likely am not certain that I have made some mistake in my reasoning. Were that the case, I would be going over that reasoning carefully to find the error. Rather, I just see that it is possible that I made a mistake, but that is nothing like having
Kristof on the excommunicated nun 
May 28th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Priests who rape children are not excommunicated, but a nun who assents to an abortion to save the woman’s life is.… Read the rest
House votes to allow repeal of ‘don’t ask don’t tell’
May 28th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The provision would allow military commanders to repeal the ban. … Read the rest
Apple Eaters on Pessin on certainty
May 28th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘In philosophy “certainty” has a specific meaning, and it means that there is no doubt.’… Read the rest
Rust Belt Philos on life-saving abortion and ‘trust’
May 28th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Funny how it’s only in the case of abortion that we have to trust that God has a plan.… Read the rest
C and not-C
May 27th, 2010 5:45 pm | By Ophelia BensonAnd then there is this fella Andrew Pessin, who says you can be certain and also uncertain and that way all shall win, all shall have prizes. You do it using the Paradox of the Preface.
… Read the restImagine an author writing something like this as a preface to her work:
I am certain, of each and every sentence in this work, that it is true, on the basis of various considerations including the careful arguments and use of evidence which led me to it. And yet I recognize that I am a fallible human being, likely to have made some error(s) in the course of this long work. Thus I am also quite certain that I have made some such error
The usual stupid way of time and the masses
May 27th, 2010 5:11 pm | By Ophelia BensonAnd while I’m at it, allow me to pause over Grayling’s comment, too.
An equally bad thing about the Dalai Lama’s article is that he calls Buddhism a religion‚ and indeed in the superstitious demon-ridden polytheistic Tibetan version of it that he leads, that is what it is. But original Buddhism is a philosophy, without gods or supernatural beings—all such explicitly rejected by Siddhartha Gautama in offering a quietist ethical teaching; but he has of course been subjected to the Brian’s Sandal phenomenon in the usual stupid way of time and the masses.
Sad, isn’t it. Time and the masses can’t leave a very good and interesting ethical teaching alone, no, they have to stuff superstition and demons into … Read the rest
Secrets of the Dalai Lama
May 27th, 2010 4:57 pm | By Ophelia BensonHere’s a useful item lifted from a comment on Jerry Coyne’s post on Anthony Grayling on the Dalai Lama. The comment is by Michael Kingsford Gray, who has been making sweeping and wrong generalizations about philosophers at Jerry’s, but all due credit to him for the useful item:
1) Who told a press conference in 1997 that men to men sex and woman to woman sex is sexual misconduct?
The Pope, or the Dalai Lama?
2) Who told a Swiss magazine in 2001, that sexual organs were created for the reproduction of the male element and the female element, and anything that deviates from this is not acceptable?
The Pope, or the Dalai Lama?
3) An anti-abortion lobby group … Read the rest
Nigel Warburton on Mohammed and the fundamentalists
May 27th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The scale of the internet censorship imposed in Pakistan is startling, and not just to “free speech fundamentalists.”… Read the rest
Jerry Coyne on whether depression is adaptive
May 27th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Depression does not meet the minimal requirements for qualifying as a biological adaptation.… Read the rest
Grayling on the Dalai Lama
May 27th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
We should endlessly iterate the obvious, that the religions are mutually exclusive, mutually blaspheming, mutually hostile, bitterly and deeply divisive, and thus a rash of open sores in the flesh of humanity.… Read the rest
Rabbi Lior: a woman’s job is to be a housewife
May 27th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
A woman has enough to do inside the house.… Read the rest
Dissent
May 26th, 2010 11:55 am | By Ophelia BensonFor the record – the (critical but reasonable) comment I tried to post on Chris Mooney’s post on science and communication yesterday has now been deleted. Yesterday it was showing up (for me only) as being held in moderation, and today it’s gone.
It is possible of course to think that no matter how reasonable one particular comment may be, the person behind it is not. Mooney doesn’t delete all dissent on his posts, so clearly he does think something along those lines – that I am myself inherently unreasonable and unallowable, even if I do manage to fake up a reasonably mild comment at some particular moment.
I think he’s wrong. I can easily see why he would resent … Read the rest
No indecent euphemisms!
May 26th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“$#*!” is filthy, and it’s a shameless demonstration of contempt for families.… Read the rest
Gita Sahgal on Amnesty’s corporate amnesia
May 26th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
In many ways, Amnesty International has come to resemble the forces that it has done so much to oppose.… Read the rest
Elon Moreh: rabbi bans women from public office
May 26th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“Women who desired to affect public opinion should do so through their husbands.”… Read the rest
BBC TV is sadly secular, says presenter
May 26th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
BBC Radio, on the other hand, is very religious. Hurrah.… Read the rest
Hau tu komyewnikate
May 25th, 2010 4:40 pm | By Ophelia BensonChris Mooney has explained about the need for science communication, or as he calls it, Sci Comm Training.
Science needs both to create new knowledge and also to disseminate it effectively so that that knowledge has an impact–so that it changes the world in a positive way. Why on earth would these two important ends be set in opposition to each other?
Yes of course it does, but disseminating knowledge is not necessarily the same thing as “framing,” nor does it necessarily need to know about “framing.” Framing is more closely related to public relations and political campaigning than it is to education, and that’s one major reason scientists and fans of science don’t all think Mooney is the ideal … Read the rest
Even the Dalai Lama kicks at atheists
May 25th, 2010 4:27 pm | By Ophelia BensonTenzin Gyatso, the Dalai Lama, says tolerance is good and religions are good. Unfortunately, as G Felis pointed out, he says more than that.
Though intolerance may be as old as religion itself, we still see vigorous signs of its virulence. In Europe, there are intense debates about newcomers wearing veils or wanting to erect minarets and episodes of violence against Muslim immigrants. Radical atheists issue blanket condemnations of those who hold to religious beliefs. In the Middle East, the flames of war are fanned by hatred of those who adhere to a different faith.
No we don’t. We may offer generalized criticism of religious belief as such, but that’s not the same as issuing “blanket condemnations” of all … Read the rest
