All entries by this author

Oversimplifying Does Not Help *

Mar 18th, 2003 | Filed by

Bush bill of goods may be dodgy but so is Chirac Double Standards Emporium, says David Aaronovitch.… Read the rest



Philosophers – Shut Up Now!

Mar 17th, 2003 7:37 pm | By

What is it about philosophers that they can’t resist pontificating about things they know nothing about? The examples are legion. Mary Midgley and David Stove wittering on about Darwinism and selfish genes. Simon Blackburn and Mary Warnock making a mess even of amateur political commentary. And Roger Scruton demonstrating that there’s no start to what he knows about popular music.

And the latest example? Have a look at this from an article in Issue 22 of The Philosophers’ Magazine (a title which sounds vaguely familiar):

Subjects like sociology, psychology, religious studies and history, which adjoin philosophy, all require empirical support, which is interpreted within the lines of a largely unquestioned methodology. Philosophy is the only subject in which the basic … Read the rest



Education Gap *

Mar 17th, 2003 | Filed by

John Ogbu’s study suggests some painful reasons for the black-white gap in education. Critics say he downplays social factors.… Read the rest



Drought Finished the Maya *

Mar 17th, 2003 | Filed by

Droughts in 810, 860, 910 C.E. may be what ended the Mayan civilization, evidence suggests.… Read the rest



Conspiracy Theories *

Mar 17th, 2003 | Filed by

Why conspiracy theories persist in the face of the facts.… Read the rest



Designer Babies? *

Mar 17th, 2003 | Filed by

Not likely, says Steven Pinker, because the genetics of behavior is far too complicated.… Read the rest



Yum, Gefilte Fish

Mar 16th, 2003 7:56 pm | By

Well, this is a fun item for the eve of war. Even, or do I mean especially, if it’s not really true that many Jews worldwide are hailing this nonsense as a modern miracle. Perhaps that’s just a bit of casual journalistic exaggeration, hmm? After all there are only two witnesses, and the fish is no longer talking, to say the least. Surely the smallness, the minusculity, of the number of witnesses ought to give the most credulous believer pause. Two. I ask you. At that rate couldn’t any one of us get any other one of us to join in a fun-loving prank and tell the world any old thing? ‘My garden gnome suddenly recited page 7 of … Read the rest



More Weeds, Spiders, Bird Food *

Mar 16th, 2003 | Filed by

New research indicates GM crops may be beneficial for environment in some ways.… Read the rest



Paradigm Shifts in Medicine *

Mar 16th, 2003 | Filed by

A doctor on the ever-moving target of medical knowledge.… Read the rest



Carpe Diem *

Mar 16th, 2003 | Filed by

Seconds from becoming gefilte fish, a carp shouts warnings in Hebrew. According to two witnesses. David Hume, anyone?… Read the rest



Do Fish Have Free Will? *

Mar 16th, 2003 | Filed by

Carlin Romano reviews Daniel Dennett’s Freedom Evolves.… Read the rest



Fun at Skool

Mar 15th, 2003 8:23 pm | By

John Sutherland has redeemed himself. I took issue with him a few weeks ago when he wrote a column recommending the UK imitate the US in using athletic scholarships to increase minority access to higher education. I think there are some serious drawbacks to that way of doing things, so I said as much. But I think he’s right on the money here. I’ve nattered about this issue of students as consumers several times on B & W. I’m glad to know other people are noticing. One would think it would be self-evident that 18-22 year olds might possibly want qualities in their teachers other than scholarship or the ability to inspire, and that hence their evaluations would be of … Read the rest



The Action is on the Surface *

Mar 15th, 2003 | Filed by

Janet Malcolm interviewed on journalists as vampires, psychoanalysis as literary technique, lawsuits and more.… Read the rest



Would an SAT Help? *

Mar 15th, 2003 | Filed by

Would an aptitude test like the ones used in the US help recruit working class students to university in the UK?… Read the rest



Theory, Theory Everywhere *

Mar 15th, 2003 | Filed by

How do people manage to generate ‘theory wars’ out of teaching a basic skill that should be learned before university?… Read the rest



Student Consumers *

Mar 14th, 2003 | Filed by

Spot on. John Sutherland on student evaluations: ‘the one criticism which is never made is: “This professor is just an entertainer”.’… Read the rest



Competing Goods *

Mar 14th, 2003 | Filed by

Targets or no targets? How does one increase university admissions for excluded groups without discriminating against currently-included groups?… Read the rest



Discrimination Against Men? *

Mar 14th, 2003 | Filed by

Women’s colleges are ‘all full of lesbians now,’ is one rumour. ‘And what if they are?’ asks Joan Bakewell.… Read the rest



Liberty Letters *

Mar 13th, 2003 | Filed by

In The Great War we had liberty cabbage, now it’s…Freedom Toast? What planet is this again?… Read the rest



How to Make Bloody-Minded Women

Mar 12th, 2003 7:42 pm | By

The last women’s college in Oxford has just voted to remain a single-sex college. I’m always interested in these campaigns to keep women’s schools single sex, and the idea (which I tend to believe) that single sex education is good for girls and bad for boys. I went to a single sex school myself, one that combined with a boy’s school the year after I graduated. I regretted it at the time but later decided I’d been lucky. If nothing else, I derived the benefit (at least I think I did) that it never crossed my mind for an instant that women were supposed to shut up and let men do the talking. So when I went to a double-sex … Read the rest