Atheists were libertines, libertines were naughty, because atheists were naughty.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Epistemology Quiz 
Nov 13th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Undiscovered ants in the Amazon…… Read the rest
Nick Cohen Says Food is a Class Issue
Nov 13th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
A healthy eater would brand herself as a toff and be picked on for being ‘too healthy’ and ‘too brainy’.… Read the rest
Warning of Epidemic of School Bullying in UK
Nov 13th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Children are being brought up in a society where violence is the norm in many ways.’… Read the rest
Victimising Professor Mubarak Ali
Nov 13th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Ishtiaq Ahmed on a distinguished historian of Pakistan faced with absurd accusations.… Read the rest
The Interview
Nov 11th, 2005 7:17 pm | By Ophelia BensonI like this, so I thought I’d share. There’s this job interview for a prospective philosophy teacher, see…
… Read the restOther candidates should create distractions. One man illustrated proper logic with this syllogism:
All men are mortal.
Socrates is mortal.
Therefore, Socrates is a man.
I raised my hand. “Birds are mortal too, aren’t they?” I asked, hoping he would correct his error.
“Yes,” our teacher agreed.
“So Socrates could be a bird?”
He smiled benignly. “No. Socrates doesn’t have feathers.”
Legal Action Against God, Resident in Heaven
Nov 11th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘God even claimed and received from me various goods and prayers in exchange for forgiveness.’ Cheater.… Read the rest
Debate on ‘Faith’ Schools
Nov 11th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
British Humanist Association education officer debates Bishop of Guildford.… Read the rest
Footballer Claims Vote Fraud in Liberia
Nov 11th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Observers have declared the vote peaceful and transparent.… Read the rest
The Badness of Two Books on Prayer
Nov 11th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
People who pray the hardest – for martyrdom, purity, the defeat of the infidel – pose the greatest threat.… Read the rest
Interviewing Philosophy Teachers Can Be Tricky
Nov 11th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
He drew Plato’s cave on the board, complete with men, sun, shadows, and perhaps mice and lollipops.… Read the rest
Pat Robertson Pitches Fit at Dover Voters
Nov 11th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Tells them to ask Darwin for help if disaster strikes.… Read the rest
Daylight
Nov 10th, 2005 7:16 pm | By Ophelia BensonI was somewhat cryptic in that post ‘Interpretation’ yesterday. Deliberately, I suppose, because I wasn’t trying to make a flat assertion, but rather to point out possibilities – areas of murk, of darkness, of fog, of confusion. Of more than one possibility. Of epistemic uncertainty. Also because that post was only preliminary; I thought I would probably try to look at the subject further, later.
So, one thing I’m not saying is that there’s no reason for people in the banlieues to be angry. Hardly. No – but it’s not a choice between ‘people in the banlieues have every reason to be angry therefore the riots are political rebellion and nothing else’ and ‘people in the banlieues have no reason … Read the rest
Ziauddin Sardar on Hizb ut-Tahrir
Nov 10th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The caliphate of Hizb ut-Tahrir’s vision can be established only by doing violence to the rest of the world.… Read the rest
Chris Mooney on Abductive Reasoning
Nov 10th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Susan Clancy investigates how otherwise sane people come to accept abduction accounts.… Read the rest
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf Winning Election in Liberia
Nov 10th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Has 59% of vote. Inexplicably, BBC uses epithet in headline.… Read the rest
Navid Shahzad on Amartya Sen
Nov 10th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Sen continues to stretch his prodigious talent as professor of both philosophy and economics at Harvard.… Read the rest
Amartya Sen on Science, Argument and Scepticism
Nov 10th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Dismayed that links between heterodoxy and scientific creativity get so little attention.… Read the rest
Ask Philosophers
Nov 10th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Questions. It helps them get out more.… Read the rest
Henri Mensonge Challenges the Coital Cogito
Nov 10th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
He out-Foucaulted Foucault, out Derridaed Derrida, and out-Deleuzed-and-Guattaried Deleuze and Guattari.” … Read the rest
