Where is that evidence again?… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Another ‘The Dog Ate My Data’ Case 
Feb 4th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
This time it’s the pro-gun scholar who can’t find his figures.… Read the rest
Caught Reading in School!
Feb 4th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Principal to teacher: your students were reading instead of watching television. Don’t let it happen again!… Read the rest
Free Speech For Me But Not For You
Feb 3rd, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Radicals when on the bottom, censors when on top. Napoleon, anyone?… Read the rest
Celebrate or Be Dull, Ben Okri Says
Feb 2nd, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Okri says Britain must respect its living writers.… Read the rest
Public Distrust of Science
Feb 1st, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The Royal Society is concerned about media coverage of new research before it has been peer reviewed (which does not mean checked by the House of Lords).… Read the rest
Caricature or Anti-Semitism?
Feb 1st, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Goya’s ‘Saturn Devouring his Children’ is a powerful piece of visual rhetoric. Is it anti-Semitic if Saturn is Sharon?… Read the rest
Newspaper Death Threats Cause Undergraduate Suspensions
Jan 31st, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘It was fairly obviously a joke,’ says student editor of headline ‘Kill Levinsky, win a Robin reliant’. … Read the rest
Alas, Poor Roses
Jan 31st, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Oliver Curry reviews a collection of arguments against evolutionary psychology edited by Steven and Hilary Rose. He finds their case unconvincing, to say the least.… Read the rest
Fishy Tomatoes and Moneyish Rockets
Jan 30th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Richard Dawkins suggests that subtle judgment is better than gut reactions, and that muddleheadedness helps no one.… Read the rest
Feds to Investigate Biology Professor
Jan 30th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
US professor, naturally enough, refuses to recommend students who don’t believe in evolution. But John Ashcroft is Attorney General.… Read the rest
Relatively Speaking
Jan 30th, 2003 | By Simon BlackburnThere are philosophers (‘absolutists’) who like to stress truth, objectivity, rationality, and knowledge. Then there are others (‘relativists’) who like to stress contingency, mutability, culture, historicity, situatedness. The first group think that the second group have no standards. The second group are accused of encouraging ‘postmodernism’, or the licentious thinking and bullshitting that goes on in some parts of the humanities. The second group think the first group are conservative and complacent, and that their words simply mark fetishes.
I like to illustrate the way these groups talk past each other with an anecdote of a friend of mine (I apologise to readers of my book Being Good, where I also tell this story). He was present at a … Read the rest
Not Just a Fashion Problem
Jan 29th, 2003 10:37 pm | By Ophelia BensonThis is a frustrating but typical article about psychoanalysis in the New York Times. It talks about the long time analysis takes and how expensive it tends to be, but entirely fails to address the very serious substantive questions there are about the scientific status of psychoanalysis: questions about evidence, falsifiability, and outright dishonesty on the part of Freud. The news seems still not to have reached the general public, including even the branch of it that writes for the newpapers, that psychoanalysis is not just out of fashion, not just not altogether cool anymore, but rather, largely considered a fraud by scientists in the field.
The article presents a false dichotomy throughout, between cheap and quick fixes on the … Read the rest
Made-Up History
Jan 29th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Someone saw some armor sometime and said it was authentic but where the armor is now, no one knows.… Read the rest
Six Years and $60,000
Jan 29th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Imagine what six years reading $60 k worth of decent books about subjects other than oneself might have done…… Read the rest
Just Say No!
Jan 28th, 2003 5:53 pm | By Ophelia BensonSince everybody and their dog seem to be sending me anti-war petitions, I thought I’d get in on the act.*
Dear Friend
As the world slides towards war in Iraq, we all feel at times as though we
are powerless. Well we are. But let’s just pretend for a minute that we’re
not. It will make us feel better, honestly.
No-one likes war, right? So we’d better oppose this one, right?
Please send this email on to everyone you know NOW!
STOP THE WAR IN IRAQ!
We, the undersigned, have no idea to whom this petition is being sent or how
seriously it will be taken. We don’t like the idea of war in Iraq and so are
prepared to … Read the rest
Satire Confusingly Like Real Life
Jan 28th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The Onion on pity for skeptics. Sounds all too familiar.… Read the rest
Prisoners are Intentional Systems
Jan 28th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Genetic determinists and environmental determinists are both mythical beings, Daniel Dennett says.… Read the rest
What Role For School Targets?
Jan 28th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Achievement targets in UK schools may be ‘counter-productive’.… Read the rest
Claiming Darwin for the Left: an interview with Peter Singer
Jan 28th, 2003 | By Julian BagginiPeter Singer looks a very tired man. It’s not
so much the early morning start of the interview, but the weeks of media scrutiny,
misrepresentation and criticism, which seem to have taken their toll.
Singer came to England to talk about “A Darwinian
Left”, but no sooner had he stepped off the plane than the Daily Express
was reviving the old controversy over Singer’s view that in certain circumstances,
it may be better to end the life of a very severely handicapped baby in a humane
way, rather than use all modern medicine can do to let it live a painful and
often brief life. Singer tried to defend himself on Radio Four’s Today
programme, but in such a brief … Read the rest
