Down the hall in the English Department, we have an otherwise highly respected colleague who believes, and I quote, that “Any criticism of the State of Israel is anti-Semitism.” I take this to mean that if the Israelis decided to… Read More ›
Angst
THE RHETORICIAN AND THE PHILOSOPHER
A Janus word is one that means one thing but also its opposite. Example: sanction. There are word-pairs that sound like they mean the opposite but don’t, like flammable and inflammable. And then there are word-pairs that sound like they… Read More ›
SMALL TALK AND LARGE
They’ve been out on a date, he invites her up for a nightcap, she accedes, he makes a pass, and she cries sexual assault. Wouldn’t it be so much easier for all concerned, for the two of them and for… Read More ›
THE MOVIE THEATRE INSIDE OUR HEADS
There’s a movie theatre inside our heads. The projector turns on automatically when we shut our eyes to go to sleep but haven’t yet arrived there. Both sci fi and fantasy flicks leave me cold. They’re like playing dealer’s choice… Read More ›
LEAVE IT BE
I think there might be some tension in my position. ‘Tension’ is the term professionalized philosophers have been trained to use in place of the less charitable terms ‘inconsistency’ or ‘contradiction’. Okay, I think I might have inadvertently saddled myself… Read More ›
THE RECURSIVITY OF SELF-DOUBT
If I retired now – which not long ago, at sixty-eight, people would have thought was well overdue – how would my life change? I might have to tighten my belt a little, but probably by only one notch. I’d… Read More ›
DESIDERATA
What Donald Trump has done, both during the campaign and in the year and a half since, is tapped into the backlash against both political correctness and what’s correct politically. The backlash against political correctness was long overdue. In saying… Read More ›
NOTES FROM THE JUNGLE
Whenever I give a talk, one of my favorite opening schticks is, “Of the things I care least about, the historicity of the Empty Tomb and global warming are pretty much in a dead heat. What I do care about,… Read More ›
THE CRITICAL THINKING PROFESSOR’S DILEMMA
S asserts that not-p. S is paid. Therefore S is paid to assert that not-p. The likelihood of the truth of not-p varies inversely with what one is paid to assert it. If one’s been exposed to the evidence… Read More ›
HOW TRUE BELIEVING CAN BE A CRITICAL-THINKING-SKILLS PARALYTIC
I’m not a neurologist but … I’m told that when the doctor tests your reflexes with that rubber hammer and your lower leg springs forward, the message isn’t going all the way up to the brain. I guess that’s because… Read More ›
