Over the years, I did my best to set Dick right about Gadamer.
Category: Latest News
Welcome to our archive of news stories relevant to the project of fighting fashionable nonsense. The stories are drawn from the electronic pages of the world’s media. On this page, you’ll find links to those stories that have been featured on Butterflies and Wheels during the current year. At the bottom of the page, you’ll find links to separate archives of stories from previous years.
We’re always pleased to hear about news stories that you think should be featured on Butterflies and Wheels. Just send an email here, if you want to point one out to us.
A note about links
Inevitably links go out of date. We suggest, therefore, that you make hard-copies of the stories that particularly interest you.
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Not a Good Time for Literary Criticism
Instead of building a body of knowledge, the field wanders in circles, bending with fashions and pronouncements of gurus.
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Alan Wolfe Discovers the Forgotten Philosopher
Mill. Mill is forgotten? Who knew?
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Steven Pinker on the Stupidity of Dignity
Leon Kass has a problem not just with longevity and health but with the modern conception of freedom.
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Real Humans Are Lazy, Busy, Impulsive, Biased
That’s why they can be nudged in socially desirable directions.
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Fatal Impediment in Catholicism
Watchdog accuses church of using dogma to oppose all forms of research on embryos.
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UD Does a Spot of Discourse Analysis
A Sunday laugh.
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Pope Reiterates Ban on Contraception
Ruthless bastard.
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Murphy-O’Connor on Marriage and Family
Marriage and family way important, he says. Celibate priests are authorities on this.
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Father Says Daughter Deserved to Die
The police congratulated him on what he had done. ‘They are men and know what honour is,’ he said.
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Scott McLemee on Neil Gross on Rorty
What tools does a sociologist bring to a book about Rorty that an intellectual historian wouldn’t?
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Is Schlafly Worthy of an Honorary Doctorate?
Lecturing is one thing, an honor is another.
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Robert Irwin on Said’s Shadowy Legacy
Tricky with argument, weak in languages, careless of facts, but thirty years on, Said still dominates debate.
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Students Don’t Know Much, Academic Says
He blames American news networks for creating shows about stupid people yelling at each other.
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Extract from Neil Gross’s Richard Rorty
Rorty concluded that there is no position outside historically situated language games from which to distinguish mind from world.
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Resist the Medievalists
The pro-choice lobby has no pulpits to marshal its troops.
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Terry Sanderson on Cormac Murphy-O’Connor
‘You are a politician as much as a priest, but no one has elected you.’
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God Mysterious, Cardinal Says
‘If Christians really believed in the mystery of God, we would realise that proper talk about God is always tentative.’
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Cardinal’s Lecture [click ‘Transcript’]
‘Have you ever met anyone who believes what Richard Dawkins doesn’t believe in?’ Yes.
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Katha Pollitt on Dr. Phyllis Schlafly
Washington University is giving Phyllis Schlafly an honorary doctorate. Yes really.