Roger Crisp, author of an acclaimed book on Mill, explains Mill’s utilitarian ethical theory. … Read the rest
All entries by this author
Nigel Warburton on The Death of Socrates 
Jul 24th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Emily Wilson provides plausible explanations of why the Athenians were so ready to execute Socrates.… Read the rest
Biologists Receive Threatening Letters
Jul 24th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Police at U of Colorado say they know who sent threats to biology professors who teach evolution.… Read the rest
Benson and Stangroom on Intellectual Adolescence
Jul 24th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Contrarianism has a proud intellectual heritage, but in its postmodern flowering it became merely juvenile.… Read the rest
Point of Inquiry Interview With OB
Jul 24th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Truth, meritocracy, anti-intellectualism, the harm principle, Keats, the Santa Claus argument for God.… Read the rest
Leaving Amherst
Jul 23rd, 2007 1:44 pm | By Ophelia BensonI’m back. Jetlagged, tired, and back.
I listened to that Point of Inquiry interview this morning and it wasn’t too bad. At the time I thought I was doing more futile muttering than turned out to be the case. As I was leaving the studio (which is in a room at the Center) I was called into the office across the hall by Norm Allen, the reviews editor of Free Inquiry; he wanted me to do a review of Infidel. They seem to like me at that place. Very wise of them.
I tell you what though: it is a boys’ club. I’m sorry to say that, but it is. (You know it is, you CfI people, if … Read the rest
James Ryerson on Rorty
Jul 23rd, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
His work was ‘welcomed by theoretically minded professors of literature and cultural studies.’… Read the rest
It’s All Metaphor, I Tell You
Jul 23rd, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
If this god is a metaphor, why are people always building real monuments and cathedrals to it?… Read the rest
Jesus and Mo on Sophisticated Theology
Jul 23rd, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
What God is a metaphor for.… Read the rest
Does the Religious Majority Rule?
Jul 23rd, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
How quickly insiders can become outsiders.… Read the rest
What US Voters Want
Jul 23rd, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Gotta believe in God, but in the right, sane, normal way; none of this funny stuff.… Read the rest
Mo Explains the ‘Nurse Five Times’ Fatwa
Jul 22nd, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The barmaid becomes lachrymose.… Read the rest
‘Multi-faith’ Schools the Remedy for Segregation
Jul 22nd, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Or perhaps not.… Read the rest
Pressure from Neocons and Islamophobes
Jul 22nd, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The remedy is to put the mosque at the heart of everything. Or perhaps not.… Read the rest
It’s a Colonialist Project!
Jul 22nd, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
No, it’s about writing off political stances that do not fit the strategic priorities of the west!… Read the rest
Center for Inquiry Ontario
Jul 22nd, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Building the atheist church basement.… Read the rest
Johann Hari on the Neocon Ship of Fools
Jul 20th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Sunbathing with people who think we need to execute a few of these pesky liberals.… Read the rest
A Converted Postmodernist
Jul 20th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Browses in Blackwell’s, reads TPM, reads an ad for the Fashionable Dictionary, reads that, laughs.… Read the rest
More lame travel blog
Jul 18th, 2007 8:27 pm | By Ophelia BensonYou’ve been clamoring and longing for more news from Amherst New York (except for the one of you who has been clamoring and longing for less, of course), so here is some. (Anyone who finds the whole idea lame: here’s a bit of advice: don’t read it.)
I’m in the back hall of the Center for Inquiry (or Centre for Enquiry, if you prefer – Jeremy remarked as we passed the sign outside that it was odd for such a place to spell its own name wrong not once but twice), surrounded by Russian students talking to each other, typing on one of the Center’s spare computers that are available for guests. There is no internet in the guesthouse (no … Read the rest
Hitchens on the Mantle of Righteousness
Jul 17th, 2007 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
On the self-satisfaction that assumes, whether or not religion is true, at least it stands for morality. … Read the rest
