I’m not sure that academia attracts heresy. Rather I suspect it’s tenure that generates it. In fact since we’re all, by definition, catholic, without the threat of hell – or in our case unemployment – we’d probably all think unclean thoughts. Some heretics become more notorious than others. Noam Chomsky and Jordan Peterson have made … Continue reading SAFE SPACES
anthropogenic global warming
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
PEOPLE SAY THE DARNDEST THINGS
Correlation is not causation. Yes it is. In fact that’s all it is. Isn’t that exactly what Hume showed us? You can’t see a cause, you can only infer it. And you can only infer it from a correlation. Sheesh! If all and only smokers get lung cancer, then, dammit, smoking causes lung cancer. If … Continue reading PEOPLE SAY THE DARNDEST THINGS
RES JUDICATA
Res judicata is Latin for a matter that’s already been decided. Here’s one: It’s a res judicata that no conversation, including this one, can get off the ground unless some things are taken to be a res judicata. Like what? Well, like that these chicken scratches represent words, which strung together constitutes sentences, which strung … Continue reading RES JUDICATA
OH BUT THAT’S DIFFERENT
As a philosopher of mind Kant was beyond brilliant. As an ethicist he was an idiot. Kant asks us to consider two scenarios: I steal your wallet, you steal mine. If I think the one is okay, I have to think the other is too. Why? “Well, because they’re the same.” No they’re not. In … Continue reading OH BUT THAT’S DIFFERENT
UNSOLICITED WORDS OF ADVICE INSTALLMENT #18
Those who claim that the end is nigh – today it’s anthropogenic global warming that’s most widely thought is going to do us in – are aware, are they not, that the world is going to come to an end sometime. Either it’ll be the universe having so expanded that we’ll freeze to death, or … Continue reading UNSOLICITED WORDS OF ADVICE INSTALLMENT #18
NECESSITATED HYPOCRISY
There are a few things that I get that other people don’t. If this weren’t so I wouldn’t be of much use to them, now would I? So no, since it’s not hubris, no apology warranted, so none forthcoming. And then there are a few things other people get but I don’t. For example, I … Continue reading NECESSITATED HYPOCRISY
DENIALISM
‘Denialism’ is a neologism in search of a meaning. Let’s see if we can find it one. As it turns out we’re going to fail. As it turns out calling someone a denialist is going to have about as much cognitive content as calling him an asshole. It’s an expletive. A term of strong disapproval. … Continue reading DENIALISM
Anthropogenesis
WHY MY COLLEAGUES ARE IDIOTS - Rant # 164 – ANTHROPOGENESIS Suppose the world came into being five minutes ago, precisely as it was five minutes ago, with all those pseudo-history books on those shelves and all those pseudo-memories in our heads where we now find them. Everything we observe, including what’s on those shelves … Continue reading Anthropogenesis
