What, Why & How do we Know ?
Really just a holding-post as a reminder I need to publish a definitive version of the Good Fences piece. It’s been compromised so many times by suggestions of tailoring it to current publishing opportunities, but the generality of it continues to emerge. This post today from Jon Haidt has given me the nudge: This is … Continue reading “Partition Walls as Good Fences”
Kenan Malik gave the Stephen Lissenberg Memorial Lecture at the NIESR in London last week (23rd Sept). The full transcript is here on his Pandaemonium web pages: “On Fences and Fractures – or what’s wrong with multiculturalism” so no need for a detailed summary here. His critique of multiculturalism is not new, but he was able … Continue reading “Avoiding objective fetishisation of cultures. “On Fences and Fractures” @Kenanmalik @NIESRorg”
George Floyd Meets Wittgenstein Otherness is neither absolute nor meaningless, so it’s important we understand what it is if we are to be more constructive than simply engaging in binary battles between ideological extremes. ===== I need to write two posts, but they’re closely related, and this probably isn’t either of them. It’s my usual … Continue reading “George Floyd Meets Wittgenstein”
Queer Theory – A new one on me, something I know literally nothing about, but I’ve been following an interesting series of social media threads from @Glinner (Graham Linehan) doing battle with the more PC extremes of gender and sexuality “terminology” – particularly the “self-identifying trans” debate – and getting inundated in trolling and flak … Continue reading “Ain’t That Queer?”
Whether it’s racist fans in football, visiting fans at White Hart Lane, fans against officials in football generally or misogyny, LGBTI-bigotry, anti-semitism or plain disagreement there is a very basic problem at work: Sadly there are too many tweeters who believe that someone with a different point of view is a horrible person and deserves … Continue reading “Insulting the Other”
I use memes / memetics as everyday language that fits with everyday social-mediated comms these days. How much #Brexit debate for example is about snappy branding of alternative solutions to the mess we’re in whether they are Unicorns or Norway models? How much smear or rhetorical marketing is involved in alt-naming of just about anything, … Continue reading “Memetics – The Objectification Objection”
A short follow-up to my more detailed post on discussions with Dr Mike Sutton, presenting on his “Nullius in Verba: Darwin’s Greatest Secret“.[Edit note: emphases added.] Firstly I’m NOT interested in arguing whether Darwin (and his bubble) told any untruths. (Quite possibly, they may have, but it’s irrelevant. Sutton is making no claims against Darwinian … Continue reading “Darwin’s Untruths”
Helen Lewis conducted a long interview with Jordan Peterson for GQ Magazine and a 100 minute version is up on YouTube. The set-up is journalist “versus” controversial public person – “interrogates” them in a “dissection of masculinity” – was exploited by GQ, whatever Lewis’ own feminist agenda. Explicitly adversarial. (Lots of people commenting on the … Continue reading “Progress in Dialogue Again – Helen Lewis and Jordan Peterson”