Self-serving bilge.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Doubtful Favors
Aug 21st, 2003 12:27 am | By Ophelia BensonHere is Part III of the story of the professor of English at Brooklyn College who was prevented from continuing to teach because he refused to inflate the grades he gave his students. At least his account of the story. It is the account of one party in a dispute rather than an impartial account by a disinterested observer. I find it all too credible, but I also keep in mind that I don’t know the facts, that we haven’t heard from the others involved, that Frederick Lang could be telling us less than the whole story.
But then again quite possibly not, because what’s in dispute is not so much what happened as whether what happened is a good … Read the rest
Oh Yeah?
Aug 20th, 2003 11:53 pm | By Ophelia BensonThis is a rather strange piece of comment. I used to quite like Karen Armstrong’s books, though I found her a bit too woolly about religion even then, but I suppose now that I’m older and less forgiving I’m more aware of…well, special pleading.
… Read the restThe religions are all committed to the quest for truth, however uncomfortable…There is unanimous agreement that the religious quest cannot begin until we see things as they really are. We cannot function effectively while trapped in enervating structures of denial, and a church that ignores the suffering of those it has injured in order to shore up its own authority has lost its way. There can be no healing for either the church or its victims
Ridiculous, But Not Aboriginal
Aug 20th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Prince Harry, modernist artist, kind of.… Read the rest
Islam and Human Rights
Aug 20th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Ishtiaq Ahmed argues that a Muslim cultural identity need not be confused with harsh laws and practices from the medieval past.… Read the rest
Galileo and Urban VIII
Aug 19th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Galileo annoyed the Pope by claiming certainty for his hypothesis.… Read the rest
Do Artists Pay Critics’ Mortgages?
Aug 19th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
And if they do does that mean the critics have to give them good reviews?… Read the rest
Even Dissidents Need Evidence
Aug 19th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
UK media are no longer watchdogs, they are powerful actors themselves.… Read the rest
A Meeting of Minds
Aug 18th, 2003 8:58 pm | By Ophelia BensonThere is an interesting convergence on Arts and Letters Daily today: one article about Ibn Warraq and his disavowal of Islam, and one by Christopher Hitchens taking issue with Edward Said, especially his new preface to Orientalism. This pairing interests us at B and W, of course, because we have a fascinating article by Ibn Warraq critiquing Edward Said’s Orientalism, and also because we admire Christopher Hitchens’ writing, particularly the anti-godbothering variety. So there we all are.
I’ve been wondering for some time what Hitchens’ opinion of Orientalism is now. I know they are friends of long standing – the friendship was Htichens’ defense, or at least reply, when Martin Amis shouted at him for insisting on quarreling … Read the rest
Fired for Refusing to Inflate Grades
Aug 18th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Brooklyn College English professor removed from classroom for…attitude?… Read the rest
‘Other’ or ‘other’?
Aug 18th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Christopher Hitchens has some reservations about Edward Said’s Orientalism.… Read the rest
Ibn Warraq and Why He Is Not a Muslim
Aug 18th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
His book ‘cuts against the ecumenical, feel-good vision of Islam as a “religion of peace”‘.… Read the rest
There is Nothing Wrong With Humanism
Aug 18th, 2003 | By Kenan MalikIs there a conflict between science and humanism? Jeremy Stangroom thinks so. Science, he argues, is necessarily reductive, and reductive science undermines humanist ideas about phenomena such as consciousness or free will. Humanists, therefore, are forced to reject perfectly good scientific theories that don’t fit with their particular worldview. A good example, he suggests, is my own critique of what I call ‘mechanistic’ science. I am, apparently, a closet Lysenkoist (though I had always thought that such guilt-by-association argument itself smacks of Stalinist rhetoric).
To understand what is wrong with Stangroom’s argument, let us accept for the moment his claim that science will eventually show ‘the stuff of the inner life of human beings – consciousness, agency, will, sensation, etc’ … Read the rest
Non Sequitur of the Year
Aug 17th, 2003 11:23 pm | By Ophelia BensonI’ve just done a study, one which involved reading one article from the THES and coming to a conclusion about it. My conclusion is that the guy doing the study the article discusses is, well, over-interpreting his evidence just a tiny bit. What did he find in his pioneering research which involved watching a popular quiz show on tv and seeing what kind of people won? He found that non-academics (or ‘housewives’ and workers, as the article oddly called them) did better than academics. Uh…gee…really? Could that be because shows like Wer Wird Millionär? don’t usually ask qestions about quantum mechanics or the Duhem-Quine thesis? On account of how most of the people who watch them aren’t academics themselves? Is … Read the rest
Peer Review Before Press Release
Aug 17th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘If the MMR and autism paper had been looked at by serious statisticians, it would never have been published.’… Read the rest
Intersection of Discovery and Sales
Aug 17th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Confusion of health and fashion concerns in study of obesity research.… Read the rest
Clash of Cutlery
Aug 17th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Knives, hatchets – it’s the Guardian on the Booker prize long list.… Read the rest
Literary Reputation and its Discontents
Aug 17th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Why is everyone so eager to rubbish Martin Amis?… Read the rest
Politics Was Rough in the 1790s, Too
Aug 16th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
And politicians were occasionally greedy and ambitious then.… Read the rest
Breakthrough for ‘Trans-national’ Legal Perspective
Aug 15th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
US Supreme Court is considering entities like the European Court of Human Rights in its decisions.… Read the rest