Cosmopolitanism in action.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Slavoj
Mar 18th, 2006 6:24 pm | By Ophelia BensonHow sensible of Slavoj Žižek. Better than sensible, even.
…only religion, it is said, can elevate us to a higher spiritual level. Today, when religion is emerging as the wellspring of murderous violence around the world, assurances that Christian or Muslim or Hindu fundamentalists are only abusing and perverting the noble spiritual messages of their creeds ring increasingly hollow. What about restoring the dignity of atheism, one of Europe’s greatest legacies and perhaps our only chance for peace?
Of course this is the cue for thousands of parrots and robots and zombies to come clattering and squawking and staggering up to intone ‘Stalin Hitler Mao Pol Pot’ at us – but atheism wasn’t the essence of Communism or Nazism … Read the rest
Peer Review
Mar 18th, 2006 5:23 pm | By Ophelia BensonJust a little more of this (as Don called it) labyrinthine topic, then I’ll talk about different, straight up and down topics. I just want to say just this one more thing, as an old friend used to say on the phone when we were fifteen. (She’s a public radio producer now, so she has to do that fund-raising stuff; she’s in the middle of it right now, it’s ‘Pledge Week’. Terrible.) Just this one more thing on the moral right and people ought not to prevent us.
… Read the restLies and falsifications are generally (and certainly in the case of Holocaust-denial) morally wrong. And it does seem puzzling, even paradoxical, to say that we can have a moral right to
Sue Blackmore on Selfish Gene’s 30th
Mar 18th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘If something is true, no amount of wishful thinking will change it.’… Read the rest
Neoclassical Economics Sidelined Psychology
Mar 18th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
In actual humans, we find not logic but all manner of irrational, self-sabotaging, even altruistic behavior.… Read the rest
What About Restoring the Dignity of Atheism?
Mar 18th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Respect for others’ beliefs as the highest value leaves two choices: patronizing or relativizing.… Read the rest
Sussex University Drops Chemistry
Mar 18th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Scientists react angrily; university plans to concentrate on other areas, such as media.… Read the rest
South Park Dukes it Out With Scientology
Mar 18th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Tom Cruise says he never said what somebody said he said.… Read the rest
Handling evidence in history: the case of Einstein’s wife
Mar 18th, 2006 | By Alberto A. MartínezHere is a good story: a 26-year-old patent clerk, having
studied theoretical physics largely on his own,
publishes in a single year four extraordinary papers
that revolutionise physics. Most of us believe, for
many reasons, that this story is true. We say that in
1905 it actually happened that it is history.
Still, we know that it is unlikely that a single
person in a single year can be so successful in physics.
Accordingly, some people have formulated hypotheses
to explain Albert Einstein’s productivity. Recently, some have argued that he worked with a secret collaborator, his first wife Mileva Marić. It
would be an extraordinary story. Famous physicist
steals credit from his modest wife. Such a story, if
true, would … Read the rest
Dragged Away Kicking and Screaming
Mar 17th, 2006 8:11 pm | By Ophelia BensonEnough of all this pallid nerdy arguing and wondering and marching back and forth. I have been persuaded. much against my better judgment, that what I really want is a very long walk on a mountain trail. I don’t think it is, I think I’ll cry and whine and ask to be carried and say my foot hurts and ask for ice cream and say my face is cold and ask for a cookie and say why aren’t we there yet and ask for brandy and say I want to go home right now. But I have acquiesced, despite the insufficiently theorized nature of this proposed very long walk and the absence of coffee houses and bookshops on this much-advertised … Read the rest
Moral Philosophy
Mar 17th, 2006 7:40 pm | By Ophelia BensonEve Garrard comments at Normblog on this whole incompletely theorized thing we have going here (though not in those terms, which I have only just this second dragged in). Her comment is interesting, and it helpfully omits the part about being puzzled as to why I keep etc etc (yes, I am having fun with that, why do you ask?) – but it still isn’t quite what I’m talking about, at least I think it isn’t.
… Read the restIt’s very hard to see why we would think that Holocaust-denial ought to be legally permissible unless we think that there’s a moral right in play, that people have a moral right to speak their minds, even if what their minds contain is false
Oh So That’s What That Is
Mar 17th, 2006 6:31 pm | By Ophelia BensonI’m going to do a Cool Hand Luke on you. What we have here is an incompletely theorized agreement.
From ‘Incompletely Theorized Agreements,’ chapter 2 of Legal Reasoning and Political Conflict by Cass Sunstein, pp 35-37.
Hence the pervasive legal and political phenomenon of an agreement on a general principle alongside disagreement about particular cases. The agreement is incompletely theorized in the sense that it is incompletely specified. Much of the key work must be done by others, often through casuistical judgments at the point of application.
Well there you go. That’s all I’m saying. It’s not so odd – and in fact it happens all the time. That’s what Sunstein means by referring to a ‘pervasive legal and … Read the rest
Night Waves on Religion
Mar 17th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Dennett, Armstrong, Williams, Ruthven discuss.… Read the rest
Heritage Piously Declared Legacy of All Humanity
Mar 17th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
But possessive jealousies of particular claimants pose huge obstacles to our common inheritance.… Read the rest
Hijab Occupies Women’s Lives Even When Off
Mar 17th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Their behaviour is ‘veiled’: they must not laugh or speak loudly, nor move freely.… Read the rest
Fear not of the Unknown but of the All Too Familiar
Mar 17th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Our own history makes us only too familiar with the dogmatism and fanaticism we see in Islam.’… Read the rest
‘Lumières!’ Next to ‘Torah, Bible, Koran’
Mar 17th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Enlightenment values again under threat from fundamentalism, terrorism, concentration of media power.… Read the rest
Judith Shklar on Putting Cruelty First
Mar 17th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘To put cruelty first, therefore, is to be at odds with both religion and politics.’… Read the rest
Not Barking in the Night
Mar 17th, 2006 2:39 am | By Ophelia BensonSome more house-circling, since Jonathan asked me a question, which seems eccentric after wondering why I keep talking, but never mind.
Jonathan points out that Norm does mention the point about falsifying the evidence; true; a fair cop; I should have looked harder and qualified what I said. But, he only mentions it, he doesn’t address it, and since it’s most of what I’ve been wondering about, I still say he’s been talking past me rather than ‘settl[ing] things pretty definitively’.
… Read the restOphelia also stands by her view that Holocaust denial shouldn’t be a criminal offence – from which the inference is surely unavoidable that this is a liberty right that she not merely notes as a legal fact but
Because I Just Got a Real Estate License, That’s Why
Mar 16th, 2006 8:47 pm | By Ophelia BensonHmm. I had moved on to other things for the moment, while still planning to say another word or two later if I got around to it. But I’ll say another word or two now, out of irritation. There’s nothing like irritation to cause one to say a word now rather than later. (See, this is where misanthropy comes in. Lycanthropy too, if you argue with wolves. That’s a swell movie with Kevin Bacon – Argues With Wolves.) I’ll tell you why, since you ask.
… Read the restI’ve been following with some interest the discussion between Norman Geras and Ophelia Benson about David Irving’s imprisonment. Norm’s most recent post seemed to me to settle things pretty definitively…The best sense I