Fashionable nonsense has been with us since the time that prehistoric man first transcribed Of Grammatology on to the walls of the Lascaux caves. Here we cast an eye back at some historical highlights.


Why Lit-crits want economists to sound more like lit-crits. *

Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by

Paul Krugman draws an interesting parallel with Stephen Jay Gould.… Read the rest



Historic Conference in Chicago March 2000 *

Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by

Conference brought Armenian
and Turkish scholars together for the first time to discuss the 1915 genocide.… Read the rest



More Than 500 Arguments for the Existence of God *

Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by

TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT

(1) Check out that tree. Isn’t it pretty?
(2) Therefore, God exists.… Read the rest



Rigoberta Menchu *

Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by

‘Whenever you’re told that you shouldn’t look into something, for some people, that is a very clear directive that you ought to keep looking.’… Read the rest



Meera Nanda on the Case for Indian Enlightenment *

Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by

Meera Nanda had good reasons to fight against patriarchal, upper-caste Hindu traditions that would have suppressed all she valued. Science was not ‘elitist’ or Western but a way of life and a philosophy for social action.… Read the rest



Steven Weinberg on the Sokal Hoax *

Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by

No, linear doesn’t mean what pomos think it means.… Read the rest



A Moral Argument for Atheism *

Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by

Slaughter of innocents, human sacrifice, eternal torture – it’s all there.… Read the rest



Report on Resistentialism *

Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by

Betrousered, two-eyed philosopher Ventre considers a world in which Things are Against Us.… Read the rest



Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women? *

Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by

When cultures are organized around controlling and using women, is blanket respect for Other cultures such a good idea?… Read the rest



‘Frontline’ on Alternative Medicine *

Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by

Alternative to what? Testing and evidence?… Read the rest



Norman Levitt on Kennewick Man. *

Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by

NAGPRA is a well-intentioned piece of legislation that has grown into a monster of anti-scientific bias.… Read the rest



Please, No More Glamorama *

Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by

James Wood on the grim outlook for social realism and ‘hysterical realism’, which may allow a space for the aesthetic and the contemplative again.… Read the rest



Anthropologists sharpen their knives *

Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by

‘Anthropologists are trained to appreciate cultural differences, but they can’t stand it within their own profession.’… Read the rest



Hitchens on Contrarianism *

Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by

‘Among his many weapons are a forensic curiosity, a vast learning, a savage wit, a commanding intellect, an international perspective and a moral authority that is built on something sturdier than cheap moralising.’… Read the rest



Human Rights and Asian Values *

Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by

Dissent is part of all cultures, Asian decidedly included.… Read the rest



Fifteen Answers to Creationist Nonsense *

Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by

Some antievolutionists admit that they intend for intelligent-design theory to serve as a “wedge” for reopening science classrooms to discussions of God. … Read the rest



Eagleton on Fish *

Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by

‘A superficially historicist, materialist case – our beliefs and assumptions are embedded in our practical forms of life – leads not only to a kind of epistemological idealism, but to the deeply convenient doctrine that our way of life cannot be criticised as a whole.’… Read the rest



NAGPRA and the Demon-haunted World *

Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by

NAGPRA proceeds from an antievolutionary perspective grounded in fundamentalist religious belief.… Read the rest



A Duty to Annoy *

Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by

Is feminism about being a fragile flower needing protection and consolation at every hint of conflict? Or is it about being a cactus and fighting back. Wendy Kaminer disavows florality.… Read the rest



Ethnomathematics *

Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by

‘Mathematics is absolutely integrated with Western civilization, which conquered and dominated the entire world.’… Read the rest