Not unlike the Indigenous Studies Department, Women and Gender Studies at the University of Lethbridge makes no bones about its commitment to social justice. But on its website it also promises that its students “will develop critical thinking skills”. By this I take it to mean the skill required to critique patriarchy. Fair enough. But … Continue reading WOMEN AND GENDER STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LETHBRIDGE
Why My Colleagues are Idiots
INDIGENOUS STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LETHBRIDGE
The social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has argued that a university can task itself to seeking the truth, or to promoting social justice, but not both. Why? Because the truth is sometimes incompatible with the promotion of social justice. A university that tries to have it both ways is going to fail at both, and as … Continue reading INDIGENOUS STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LETHBRIDGE
CALLING OUT CODE-CALLING
I’m not sure it’s anything new, so I’ll just say there’s a particular effective but pernicious ploy in popular argumentation that I’m going to call ‘code-calling’. For example, during the 2016 Presidential campaign Americans were told that accusing so-and-so of holding “New York values” is code for Jewish values, and so calling out one’s use … Continue reading CALLING OUT CODE-CALLING
THE UCP GOVERNMENT’S FREE EXPRESSION PROPOSAL
It’s rare that I find myself expressing unqualified support for a piece of legislation that the government, or so I hope, is about to enact.. But the UCP’s proposal for An Act to Protect Free Expression at Alberta’s Public Colleges and Universities strikes me as letter perfect and long overdue. The drafters of the Act … Continue reading THE UCP GOVERNMENT’S FREE EXPRESSION PROPOSAL
ON MORAL URGENCY COMPARISONS
Wherever and whenever one group of people is doing better than another, there’s going to be resentment. The Europeans shipped slaves from Africa to the Americas to cut cane and pick cotton. A mere century and a half later, should we be surprised that we’re not entirely just one big happy family? The British invited … Continue reading ON MORAL URGENCY COMPARISONS
THE UNIVERSITY’S SEXUAL VIOLENCE POLICY
I’ve just had the opportunity to read the University of Lethbridge’s recently adopted Revised Sexual Violence Policy. On the one hand I’m bound, by what I’m supposed to do for a living, to point out in what respects it’s a dog’s breakfast. But on the other I want to acknowledge that coming up with a … Continue reading THE UNIVERSITY’S SEXUAL VIOLENCE POLICY
RAPE CULTURE
Apparently there’s something called ‘rape culture’. I wouldn’t have guessed that. Having specialized in the Philosophy of War, I’d have thought rape was pretty much endemic to the human species. In fact isn’t there a biologist, Randy Thornhill, and an anthropologist. Craig Palmer, who co-wrote an entire book on the subject? A Natural History of … Continue reading RAPE CULTURE
AT THE RISK OF SOUNDING TRANSPHOBIC …
Apart from the half dozen things I do care about – and for aught I know I’m the only one who does – I pretty much live in my own little world. My wife, by contrast, researches everything. She even knows, go figure, which Year of Our Lord it happens to be. But she doesn’t … Continue reading AT THE RISK OF SOUNDING TRANSPHOBIC …
WHAT IS IT TO TRIVIALIZE?
I killed a wasp the other day. I murdered a wasp the other day. These have two very different meanings. Why? Because killing means killing, whereas murder means wrongful killing, and presumably no one, or almost no one, thinks it’s wrong for me to have killed that wasp. The term murder includes a moral assessment, … Continue reading WHAT IS IT TO TRIVIALIZE?
A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO AGW DENIAL
ABSTRACT: Of the things I care least about, AGW is in a dead heat with what really happened on 9/11. But because, as George W. Bush put it, either you’re with the terrorists or you’re against them, I think I’d rather be interestingly wrong than politically correct. Accordingly I rehearse what I take to be the … Continue reading A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO AGW DENIAL
