New principle of humanitarian intervention despite fears that it would infringe sovereignty.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
UN Adopts Landmark Outcome Document
Sep 17th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCalls for action when national authorities fail to protect against genocide, war crimes.… Read the rest
Norm Geras on Just Association
Sep 17th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonFundamental interests, human rights, how to protect them, the global community.… Read the rest
Ring-fencing Religion Again
Sep 16th, 2005 7:52 pm | By Ophelia BensonThere’s this article by Timothy Garton-Ash in yesterday’s Guardian, titled ‘What we call Islam is a mirror in which we see ourselves’. Well, yes, no doubt – but one could say that of anything. What we call anything is a mirror in which we see ourselves, but what of that? Does that get us much of anywhere? It could, but it could also not. In other words, calling something [whatever we do call it] could indicate that we are [rational/irrational/misanthropic/empathetic] and be true or untrue all the same. The two can be quite independent. A person can be malevolent or loony and still get things right, and a person can be caring and understanding and still get things wrong.
Garton-Ash … Read the rest
Auspicious Geopathic Chi Luck Elements Fortune
Sep 16th, 2005 6:32 pm | By Ophelia BensonAll righty, now let’s all pull up our chairs to our desks and place our pens and pencils neatly at the top and get ready to pay attention. Remember the other day we had a little disagreement about whether or not Feng Shui is woo-woo or, in the technical language, nonsense? It started because I linked to an article by Nick Cohen who referred to Feng Shui (as I did in the headline) as fashionable nonsense – a phrase that has a certain resonance for the proprietors of B&W. But a reader took exception to that headline, and to Nick’s article, on the grounds that Feng Shui isn’t nonsense at all, but just sensible environmental design. Well, I don’t think … Read the rest
Hitchens v Galloway
Sep 16th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe Independent goes along.… Read the rest
Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche as Business Advice
Sep 16th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘All around me businesses are going bust and this has made me very philosophical.’… Read the rest
Jonathan Rée on Nietzsche and Rée
Sep 16th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonRobin Small writes on a philosophical friendship.… Read the rest
If You Want to Be a Millionaire, Get Yourself Raped
Sep 16th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSays Musharraf to the Washington Post. Women in Pakistan disagree.… Read the rest
Trade Union Friends of Israel Meeting
Sep 16th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonJon Pike’s remarks on defeat of AUT boycott were like a sudden breath of fresh air.… Read the rest
Hitchens and Galloway Together at Last
Sep 16th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonA debate.… Read the rest
Galileo, Therefore I’m Right
Sep 15th, 2005 6:24 pm | By Ophelia BensonThere was some discussion yesterday of what to call the ‘argument’ that goes along the lines ‘Galileo was ignored/suppressed/censored, I’m ignored/suppressed/censored, therefore my ideas are on a par with Galileo’s ideas.’ I said I simply thought of it as the Galileo fallacy. (Chris Williams on the other hand offered an alternative in the Bozo the clown fallacy. ‘They laughed at Newton, they laughed at Einstein…’ ‘Yes and they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.’ That works.) Once I’d said that, I thought I might as well google it – and behold, a few citations of the Galileo fallacy.
At Bad Logic for instance.
… Read the restJust about every logical fallacy ever imagined turns up in pseudoscience, including: “Galileo Fallacy” “They laughed at
When Feminists Defend an Antifeminist Custom
Sep 15th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCritics of the hijab were repeatedly challenged with a false dichotomy.… Read the rest
Reading Judith Shklar
Sep 14th, 2005 8:48 pm | By Ophelia BensonI’ve just been re-reading Judith Shklar’s 1989 essay ‘The Liberalism of Fear.’ It’s good stuff.
Skepticism is inclined toward toleration, since in its doubts it cannot choose among the competing beliefs that swirl around it, so often in murderous rage. Whether the skeptic seeks personal tranquility in retreat or tries to calm the warring factions around her, she must prefer a government that does nothing to increase the prevailing levels of fanaticism and dogmatism.
I read it the first time several years ago. I liked it – but certain resonances are even more resonant now than they were then (let alone than when she wrote the article, which was for instance before Yugoslavia fell apart).
… Read the restTo call the liberalism of
On the Other Hand
Sep 14th, 2005 6:50 pm | By Ophelia BensonSince I keep picking fights with Michael Ruse’s recent arguments, it’s only fair that I should point out this item I’ve just read on Philosophy of Biology. It’s a letter Ruse sent to the dean, which he posted by way of encouraging others.
… Read the restAs the disaster unfolds in New Orleans, I am sure I am not alone in wondering what I can do. So far, the FSU response seems to be that we must go on with the football game. Is it at all possible to offer something to the students of Louisiana? For instance, could we take some of them in for a semester or two and wave fees? It is surely not too late in the
Necessity, Military Tribunals, and the Law
Sep 14th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMilton Whiggishly said ‘necessity is ever the tyrant’s plea.’… Read the rest
Žižek! the Musical
Sep 14th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonScott McLemee talks to Astra Taylor about her film and popularizing the unpopularizable.… Read the rest
Bin Laden Appeals to the ‘Devout and Dissatisfied’
Sep 14th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHe ‘sounds like somebody who would be a very high-minded and welcome voice in global politics.’… Read the rest
Conrad, Chesterton, the ‘Anarchist Epidemic’
Sep 14th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonTaking the bus not as ‘a small act of courage and defiance’ but to go from Victoria to Green Park.… Read the rest
Some Opinions Have Changed on Some Things
Sep 14th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonFancy that.… Read the rest