‘People disappear and you don’t know what happened to them all.’… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Radio 4 on John Mack and ‘Alien Abduction’
Jun 9th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe stupidest, most credulous half hour you’ll ever listen to.… Read the rest
The Difficulties of Being a Mitigated Sceptic
Jun 9th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDegrees of doubt and questioning don’t work with sound bites.… Read the rest
On Being a Mitigated Sceptic
Jun 9th, 2005 | By Philip StottTo be a sceptic is a difficult and dangerous business. To be what the philosopher, David Hume, called a “mitigated”, or moderate, sceptic is, in addition, deeply frustrating. In the first case, sceptics are seen as enemies of ”religion”; in the second, the moderate sceptic is constantly misunderstood, because one is dealing with carefully-modulated degrees of questioning and doubt that do not conform easily to the modern world of sound bites, shallow interviews, and pressure-group action. The media inevitably favour the religious fanatic who can encapsulate into a single sound bite simple articles of unquestioned faith that mesh readily with the prevailing public mood, which they themselves so often – too often – share.
In the UK, ”global warming” is … Read the rest
Professor Carey Will Have His Fun
Jun 8th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIs art merely a way for people to show off? Or is there more to it than that?… Read the rest
Alan Ryan on Harvard and its Rivals
Jun 8th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHarvard view of MIT: a hangout for nerds and social inadequates. … Read the rest
All Shall Have Prizes
Jun 8th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonUniversity is a consumer product and teachers are servants.… Read the rest
Heidegger, Hölderlin, and the Ister
Jun 8th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonFilm is reinvigorating a conversation among philosophers.… Read the rest
Greatest Philosopher Shortlist – Vote Now
Jun 8th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHume, Mill, Spinoza, Marx, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Aristotle, Plato?… Read the rest
Full Disclosure
Jun 8th, 2005 2:33 am | By Ophelia BensonAll right, we’ve made this separation; we’ve put the veracity or epistemic question on one side of the line, and the consequentialist question on the other. We’ve further said that the epistemic question comes first: that is, that for the sake of clarity, it ought to. So then what happens on the other side of the line? How does that discussion go?
One way it goes is to say that even if there is no good reason to think religion is true (unless religion is defined so thinly that it bears no resemblance to what most people mean by the word), it still doesn’t do to say so, because saying so would (to put it somewhat hyperbolically, as people occasionally … Read the rest
Marx is not Buried Under All That Rubble
Jun 7th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonFrancis Wheen on Marx’s metaphoric but piercing accuracy about the beast.… Read the rest
Religion in the US
Jun 7th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonEnthusiasm for influence of ‘religious leaders’ greater than in other industrialized countries.… Read the rest
The PM, the Philosopher and the Stigmata
Jun 7th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBHL woke in the night with bleeding hands.… Read the rest
First Things
Jun 7th, 2005 12:02 am | By Ophelia BensonThere are many ways one can divide up religion and arguments for religion in order to discuss or analyze them, many ways one can draw a line down the middle of the room and put all the Xs on one side and all the Ys on the other. (And then draw another line and sort the Ys, and then draw another line and sort their progeny, and so on, until everyone goes mad and the game is over.) One way is to separate questions about veracity from questions that leave veracity aside. To separate the epistemic issues from the moral and aesthetic and emotional, one might say. So on this side of the tavern we argue about whether there is … Read the rest
Meaning
Jun 6th, 2005 8:17 pm | By Ophelia BensonThis was an odd item. The Economist’s review of the Oxford Companion to Philosophy edited by Ted Honderich (which, you’ll be fascinated to know, has an entry, or is it two entries, by my erudite colleague) and The Future of Philosophy edited by Brian Leiter. It ended with – with what certainly looks to an impartial observer (by which I mean me) like a dig.
… Read the restAlthough plenty of philosophers consult the Gourmet, it makes others of them cringe. Two years ago close on 300, including some from top-ranked New York University and Rutgers, wrote an open letter complaining that Mr Leiter’s table measured reputation, not excellence, and that it was driving good students away from middle-rank colleges in a
Ricoeur, Metaphors, Mailer, Nietzsche, Sinclair
Jun 6th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAnd how entire rooms disappear under piles of books and papers.… Read the rest
Graduate Student Blog Goes Flamey
Jun 6th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonScab, no-show, tokenism, racism, bad faith, postmodern wanker.… Read the rest
Dementia of Contemporary Conservative Thinking
Jun 6th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHitler, Mill, Lenin, Dewey, Friedan, Darwin, Nader all in the mix.… Read the rest
Moves to Make Scientific Research Public
Jun 6th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe number of open access journals is increasing by the week.… Read the rest
Hitchens Determined to Fight Disgraceful Cringe
Jun 6th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIt’s everywhere once you notice it.… Read the rest