‘But the gender-genre books that are based largely on clinical intuition and popular psychology typically lack a basic skepticism toward received wisdom and the willingness to wrestle with an idea to see who wins.’… Read the rest
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.
Science, Scientism, and Anti-Science in the Age of Preposterism
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘We are in danger of losing our grip on the concepts of truth, evidence, objectivity, disinterested inquiry.’… Read the rest
Limitations of Political Reporting
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Investors need to know the truth, but voters don’t. Or not.… Read the rest
Melvin Konner takes on the opponents of sociobiology.
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Biologists who had done no primary research in human sciences nevertheless issued anathemas on it.… Read the rest
Holocaust Denial on Trial
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Deniers distort history in order to promote antisemitism and white supremacy.… Read the rest
Irfan Khawaja takes issue with Daniel Pipes
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Militant Islam and militant Christian fundamentalism are indeed related.… Read the rest
Richard Dawkins’ review of Not in Our Genes
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
In their ‘paranoiac and demonological theology of science’ Lewontin, Kamin and Rose fire both barrels with equal monotony and imprecision: ‘determinism’ and ‘reductionism’. But the gallant little fire brigade has perpetrated a fatuous little book.… Read the rest
The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Consider Will Crooks, Labour MP. ‘Growing up in extreme poverty…Crooks spent 2d. on a secondhand Iliad, and was dazzled…’… Read the rest
The Yanomamo Controversy
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
A scandal in anthropology is complicated by politics, emotion, prestige – the usual sort of thing.… Read the rest
Washington, Jefferson and slavery.
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Washington freed his slaves in his will, Jefferson did not. The reasons of each tell us much about American history.… Read the rest
Urvashi Butalia on ‘honour’ killing.
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Women’s groups demand that murderers be treated according to laws of the land and not be allowed to find shelter behind the curtain of ‘culture’. … Read the rest
Science According to the X-Files
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘We are born of primordial slime, not at the hands of a benevolent and concerned supreme being who lovingly crafted us from clay.’… Read the rest
Ni Putes ni Soumises
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘We’re girls, so we’re less-than-nothings, Priscilla, 17, told Le Monde after her friend Sohane’s death.… Read the rest
Lies, Self-Deception and Magical Thinking
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Psychoanalysis was never, despite Freud’s ‘positivist rhetoric,’ a science; it was a ‘purely speculative enterprise,’ argues Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen.… Read the rest
Or Academic Pooh and Postmodern Instincts
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Literary criticism, cultural studies; love letter and satire.… Read the rest
Literature and theory duke it out.
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
If Lentricchia and Said have joined, the revenge of the emeriti may not be so regressive after all.… Read the rest
Whither Irony?
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘In the clamorous and bloodstained souk of the world…people still go unrepentantly on looking out for good lives’… Read the rest
Dawkins on Maynard Smith
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘John does know more mathematics, more physics and more engineering than the average biologist. But he also knows more biology than the average biologist.’… Read the rest
Vikram Chandra on the Cult of Authenticity
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Don’t essentialize Indianness, but you’d better get the Real India right.… Read the rest
Derek Freeman or Margaret Mead?
Apr 10th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
One can be controversial and heretical and still be wrong.… Read the rest