One can expand the moral circle by taking other people’s perspectives.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Mattering and Meaning
Jun 10th, 2004 9:51 pm | By Ophelia BensonWe were talking about meaning the other day. I read something in Daniel Dennett’s Consciousness Explained that seems relevant:
So the conscious mind is not just the place where the witnessed colors and smells are, and not just the thinking thing. It is where the appreciating happens. It is the ultimate arbiter of why anything matters…It stands to reason – doesn’t it? – that if doing things that matter depends on consciousness, mattering (enjoying, appreciating, suffering, caring) should depend on consciousness as well.
Mattering is about caring – therefore (surely?) meaning is related to caring – perhaps is another word for the same thing, or both words name the same thing but from different angles. I said much the same … Read the rest
Women Resist Sharia in Ontario
Jun 10th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhy should Muslim women be treated differently from other Canadian women?… Read the rest
Discrimination Against Atheists in the US
Jun 10th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMany targets are silent for fear of attracting more hatred.… Read the rest
Jonathan Derbyshire on Reasoning Away God
Jun 10th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNicholas Everitt argues that faith is not belief in evidence of a certain kind.… Read the rest
It Matters Who Gets to Hold the Pen
Jun 10th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhat if your White Goddess-Muse wants to write her own poetry?… Read the rest
What Are Book Reviews For?
Jun 10th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonShaking the sawdust out, a fun read over breakfast, settling scores.… Read the rest
Punctuated Equilibrium
Jun 9th, 2004 10:45 pm | By Ophelia BensonI find this a little bit amusing. Not the whole thing, just one part of it. The whole thing is a discussion of Eve Garrard’s second piece on Amnesty International at Normblog. That’s not particularly amusing, turning as it does on the murder, torture and general pushing-around of millions upon millions of people around the world. No, not an amusing subject. What amused me was just one item at the end of Chris’ post.
… Read the restFinally — and I’m picking nits now — Eve writes that “the idea that the force of an argument should be materially altered by an (allegedly) misplaced comma is … delightful and charming.” It may be, but my complaint focused not on the force of the
Eve Garrard on Amnesty International, 2
Jun 9th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHow do different human rights records compare?… Read the rest
Can Science Be Funny?
Jun 9th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWell obviously! The Far Side, Hitchiker’s Guide, the Fashionable Dictionary…… Read the rest
Scientists Observe Speciation
Jun 9th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNervous breakdowns for creationists predicted.… Read the rest
Fantasyland
Jun 8th, 2004 11:00 pm | By Ophelia BensonI’m still pondering this link between Theory of Mind and – and a lot of things: imagination, social cognition, lying, pretending. And via those things it links to even more things – empathy, story-telling, literature and art, religion, politics, manipulation, coalitions – really pretty much everything that has to do with humans as conscious intentional reflective social beings. It all starts with this ability to realize that Other Minds are other minds.
This all raises a number of thoughts or questions. A reader (who has a post on a related subject on his own blog) mentioned this article by Pascal Boyer.
… Read the restSocial interaction requires the operation of complex mental systems: to represent not just other people’s beliefs and their
Neither a Fox nor a Hedgehog
Jun 8th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHitchens recalls the Reagan years.… Read the rest
Bishops Throwing Their Weight Around
Jun 8th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSecularism versus theocracy in an election year.… Read the rest
What to Call Our Contemporaneity
Jun 8th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonZygmunt Bauman on modernity, postmodernity, post-late modernity.… Read the rest
What if You Pray Your Fraud Will Go Undetected?
Jun 8th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonResearcher in flawed study of efficacy of prayer pleads guilty in unrelated fraud case.… Read the rest
Latin America Expert Quits in Protest
Jun 7th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAccuses Kissinger and friends of silencing him in debate over US intervention in Chile.… Read the rest
Historical Literacy Left Behind
Jun 7th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonTeaching to the test means students learn skills at expense of knowledge.… Read the rest
National ‘Public’ Radio
Jun 7th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHow to make public service commercial? Easy – redefine ‘public service.’… Read the rest
Bruce Grant on ‘Intelligent Design’
Jun 6th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe first step on the road to theistic science.… Read the rest