His 1961 newspaper article ‘The Forgotten Prisoners’ changed the world for the better. … Read the rest
All entries by this author
Bush Admin Science Advisor Gets One Thing Right 
Feb 26th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
John Marburger stated point blank, ‘Intelligent Design is not a scientific theory.’… Read the rest
Dynamic Behind Campus Free-speech Fights
Feb 26th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Parochial argument turned into national banquet for right-wingers hungry for culture enemies.… Read the rest
Scott McLemee Goes to Derrida Conference
Feb 26th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Where Jack Balkin suggests that Bush has hoisted Derrida by his own aporias.… Read the rest
Did Larry Summers Have a Cunning Plan?
Feb 26th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
If not, he wasn’t doing his job and doesn’t know what it is, Stanley Fish says.… Read the rest
A C Grayling Reviews Fuller on Popper and Kuhn
Feb 26th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Popper’s promotion of critical spirit of scientific enquiry preferable to Kuhn’s incommensurability.… Read the rest
First, Do No Harm
Feb 26th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Next, get agreement on what will do harm. Best of luck!… Read the rest
Richard Dawkins on the Giant Tortoise’s Tale
Feb 26th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Islands provide the barrier to sexual intermingling that evolution needs.… Read the rest
Beliefs Should Precede ‘Positioning’
Feb 25th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Michael Tomasky: Democrats just don’t talk about fundamental ideas enough.… Read the rest
Todd Gitlin on Permission to Speak Freely
Feb 25th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Conformity is self-fulfilling, lending itself to enshrinement of the smug and the narrow.… Read the rest
Use Bottled Water in the Bird-bath
Feb 24th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Shampoo the teddy-bear, dodge the asteroid, take holistic arboreal medicine.… Read the rest
Ted Honderich on Infuriating Both Sides
Feb 24th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
You can infuriate both sides and be wrong; but independence of mind is anathema to some on any side.… Read the rest
Harry Frankfurt Talks to the Boston Globe
Feb 24th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
On the difference between lies and bullshit, and whether there is more of the latter.… Read the rest
‘Christian Voice’ Ought to Shut Up
Feb 24th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Tells cancer charity not to accept donation from ‘Jerry Springer – The Opera’ – and charity obeys.… Read the rest
‘More Than a Stretch’
Feb 24th, 2005 | By Graham LarkinThe first casualty of David Horowitz’s effort to impose ideological “diversity” on American campuses has been the truth. Horowitz initially supported his proposal for an Academic Bill of Rights (ABOR) with “independent” studies pointing to a vast predominance of “leftists” on American campuses. As I pointed out last September, neither of the studies in question seems to be independent of Horowitz’s own Center for the Study of Popular Culture. (Nor does the help of the notoriously mendacious Frank Luntz serve as any guarantee of credibility.) In a subsequent exchange with me, Horowitz underwent breathtaking contortions in an effort to back out of bogus claims he had made in support of his ABOR campaign. For instance, in order to deny … Read the rest
Grounding
Feb 23rd, 2005 8:20 pm | By Ophelia BensonIt’s always interesting, unsettling, and difficult to try to figure out if we can ground our moral and political commitments. I read a sentence about James Fitzjames Stephen’s criticism of Mill’s On the Subjection of Women this morning that caught my attention – ‘His [Stephen’s] own position was that equality was like liberty: it was not an absolute good but sometimes good and sometimes not.’ Not that that’s a startling idea, of course. It’s not a news flash that equality has not always been thought an absolute good or even a good at all, and that for instance the famous phrase in the Declaration of Independence struck most contemporary observers as downright absurd rather than self-evident. And Leslie Stephen’s brother … Read the rest
Occultism and Pseudoscience in Russia
Feb 23rd, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
New freedom of press often turns into poisonous propaganda of pseudoscience. … Read the rest
More Than a Stretch
Feb 23rd, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Todd Gitlin and Michael Bérubé say they didn’t say what Horowitz says they said.… Read the rest
Economists’ Rational-actor Model Self-fulfilling
Feb 23rd, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Repeated exposure to self-interest model makes selfish behavior more likely.… Read the rest
The ‘Hype’ of Holocaust Commemoration?
Feb 23rd, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
French stand-up comic tries to justify his remarks; vandals daub swastikas on Muslim and Jewish sites.… Read the rest
