The tendency to narrow philosophy to a technical exercise is one she has vigorously opposed. … Read the rest
All entries by this author
Blasphemy Rocks
May 1st, 2006 1:30 am | By Ophelia BensonSomeone should have said this long ago.
Something terribly important has been missing from discussions orbiting around the Mohammed cartoons…What’s been missing has been an acknowledgment that blasphemy isn’t just something that must be tolerated. It’s something that possesses a special political value of its own. Blasphemy, in short, is a good thing. It’s something admirable, noble, and, yes, even respectable.
Actually…now you mention it…somebody ought to start a magazine called Blasphemy. And mean it.
… Read the restIt must be stated and stated unequivocally that it’s no more improper in healthy democratic discourse to ridicule religious figures and ideas (even core ideas) than it is to criticize and mock (other) politically important figures and ideas…Formally speaking, in democratic discourse there’s nothing
One for the Dictionary
May 1st, 2006 1:14 am | By Ophelia BensonHere’s something I’d like to know. Why do people keep calling Galbraith an ‘unapologetic’ liberal? Why is being a liberal something one is expected to apologize for?… Read the rest
Gustave et Marcel
May 1st, 2006 12:58 am | By Ophelia BensonThose French – they’re witty bastards. Flaubert for instance. I picked a Penguin selection of his letters off a shelf this morning, for no particular reason, I just caught sight of it and felt like browsing in it – I opened it at random – at a letter to Louise Colet in which he talks about Musset, with whom Colet had just begun an affair. (Page 185)
… Read the restI have been thinking a great deal about Musset. And I think that in the end it is all just Affectation…Men sentimentalize over everything, and most of the time the poor women are taken in by it. It was only to make a good impression on you that he said: ‘Try me. I
When the Morning Stars Sang Together
May 1st, 2006 12:57 am | By Ophelia BensonI like this item of Julian’s, too. He asks what is meant by ‘being religious’.
… Read the restYet logos and mythos do not exhaust the meanings of religiosity. There is a third sense, one which I believe is more important and more widely held. This is the idea of having a religious attitude. Attitudes are…deeply important to how we live, for they determine our entire orientation to the world around us. Among the primary religious attitudes are those of awe, reverence, gratitude and humility. What each have in common is that they capture a sense that there is something greater than us, which commands us, and which we cannot control. And it is the perceived absence of these attitudes in atheism
Hitchens on the Euston Manifesto
Apr 30th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Even the obvious has now become revolutionary.… Read the rest
The Righteousness of Blasphemy
Apr 30th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Not just something that must be tolerated, blasphemy possesses a special political value of its own. … Read the rest
John Kenneth Galbraith
Apr 30th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The Affluent Society one of those rare works that forces a nation to re-examine its values. … Read the rest
Pseudowisdom from Freud
Apr 30th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘We want a strong man’ – that’s deep.… Read the rest
Saudi Arabia Attempts Reform
Apr 30th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
If women start driving, it will lead to adultery and kidnap.… Read the rest
You Can’t Do Both
Apr 30th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
It’s a sin to shag a sheep and then eat it.… Read the rest
Preachers Ask God to Lower Gas Prices
Apr 30th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Next week: prayers for a sale on SUVs.… Read the rest
Niall Stanage on the Euston Manifesto
Apr 30th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
It ‘may sound like a lengthy statement of the obvious. But, in a way, that’s the point.’… Read the rest
More Indy Drivel on Astrology
Apr 30th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘On certain levels, it is a science.’ Which would those be?… Read the rest
Stepping Sideways
Apr 29th, 2006 11:15 pm | By Ophelia BensonPhrasemaker, Scruton, isn’t he.
Freud, who assumed the mask of the objective observer, who presented his results as the inescapable conclusions of arduous empirical study, who repeatedly claimed that his psychological discoveries would one day be grounded in biology, is now widely accepted at mask-value…Someone must have reminded him that not all children are boys; but he had an easy way with his critics, which was to throw the Greeks at them. Thus was born the Electra complex, conjured from a thigh-bone of Oedipus…At every point where scientific method might impose its logic on the argument, Freud stepped sideways into metaphor, asserting with dogmatic intransigence that this is how things are because this is how they must be.
Stepping … Read the rest
Roger Scruton on Sigmund the Fraud
Apr 29th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
At every point where scientific method might impose its logic on the argument, Freud stepped sideways into metaphor.… Read the rest
Andrew Brown Interviews Raymond Tallis
Apr 29th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
GP, research scientist, professor of gerontology, literary critic, poet and philosopher.… Read the rest
Jesus Christ! Cherie Blair in Wrong Frock Scandal
Apr 29th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Wears white dress to meet pope, must think she is a queen.… Read the rest
Overselling Climate Change
Apr 29th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Alarmism is bad strategy.… Read the rest