Monthly Archives: July 2011

Does the Norwegian Terrorist Attack Reflect on Islamophobes in General?

Posted on July 30, 2011 by

Should the killings in Norway affect our opinion of ‘islamophobic’ writers more broadly? This question has arisen in several blogs I’ve seen over the last week, and it interests me. So, I will voice some thoughts. To start with, two … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

I didn’t realise Agent Orange was still in use.

Posted on July 24, 2011 by

“Brazil’s environment agency, IBAMA, discovered a 178 hectare patch of dead trees during a recent overflight of an area of the western Brazilian Amazon…reportedly destroyed illegally with chemical defoliant sprayed from an airplane. The uncontacted Indians thought to be living … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Murdoch’s Responsibilities and Distinct Consciousness

Posted on July 23, 2011 by

I will confess that I watch the implosion of the Murdoch empire with moderate glee. I especially enjoy the way that responsibility seems to creep upward along various chains of influence, implicating bosses, police, and politicians as well as individual … Continue reading →

Posted in British Politics | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Is Life Ultimately Futile?

Posted on July 16, 2011 by

The question that idiots always ask when they learn you’re a philosopher is “so what’s the meaning of life?” This question is probably unanswerable, and that’s probably because it’s not a real question, or at least not a single real … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

On Revolutionary Baboons

Posted on July 15, 2011 by

(there will be proper posts soon, but today another link) This link is to a Russian-doll of awesome. The outer doll is the blog, ‘sex nerd‘, which I am adding to my blogroll for its combination of science and militant … Continue reading →

Posted in Political Philosophy | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

R. H. Tawney and the News of the World

Posted on July 12, 2011 by

Just linking to a post I liked: Paul at ‘Though Cowards Flinch’ proposes ways that less capitalist ownership might reduce the levels of bastardry and scummage in the media. Professional pride, RH Tawney, and the future of the media

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

Positive Liberty, Inner Slavery, and the Wrong Sort of Rationalism

Posted on July 8, 2011 by

There’s an idea, pronounced in the history of (western) philosophy and present, though perhaps less pronounced, in popular culture, that a person can be ‘internally enslaved’, i.e. can fail to be fully free not because of external constraints but because … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Professional-Development-al-Psychology

Posted on July 6, 2011 by

A random thought: does anyone know of any work that applies concepts from developmental psychology to academic socialisation? That is, analysing the way that people become academics, or learn academic disciplines, by analogy with the way that children develop. Here’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments