In the so-called First World we went from letter writing to land lines and thence to cell phones. In the so-called Third World they skipped the land lines. So on the news we see desperate young men from North Africa… Read More ›
Gaza
FROM THE UNTHINKABLE THOUGHTS FILE
Well no, that can’t be right. If a thought were unthinkable I couldn’t think it, and if I couldn’t think it I couldn’t blog about it. On the other hand, by unthinkable I can’t just mean distasteful or unseemly. So… Read More ›
TAKING SIDES
It’s hard sometimes for students of history to remember they’re also living in history. That I’m no exception I find embarrassing. I’m embarrassed because I’m upset about Ukraine and Palestine. But why? National borders change with the alacrity of the… Read More ›
LEDICE
There’s a civil war, though not a very civil one, that’s been going on in the southern Levant at least since 1948. Let’s see if we can identify the combatants. But first a disclaimer. Any attempt to define the parties… Read More ›
MUCH ADO ABOUT SOMETHING
Occam’s Razor advises us never to multiply entities beyond what’s needed to explain what needs explaining. Is this because the simpler explanation is more likely to be the correct one? If so, what would explain that? So no. Rather it’s… Read More ›
HOBBES ON OPPRESSION AND RESISTANCE
(1) Oppression is morally indefensible. As is brutality. So(2) brutality in the service of oppression is doubly indefensible. (3) Resistance to oppression, if not morally mandatory, is certainly morally laudable. So (4) brutality in the service of resistance is at… Read More ›
BUT THAT COULD CHANGE
What is it to win a war? Well, it’s for the war to have achieved its objective. The objective of Israel’s neighbours in the wars of ’48, ’56, ’67 and ’73 was to push the Israelis back into the sea…. Read More ›
THE GENOCIDE DEBATE REVISITED
Harris and Trump are calling each other a fascist. But either claim will die the death of a thousand qualifications. So it’s not a claim. It’s what Wittgenstein would call a move in a language game called political rhetoric. Fair… Read More ›
FROM THE YES-BUT-DON’T-SAY-IT FILE
The core axiom driving any cognising organism is to treat like cases alike. And this, of course, requires that it distinguish between this collection of things and that collection of things. These distinctions are not always easy. Are we in… Read More ›
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU
It’s a little known fact that others of our species are not very tasty, at least not to us. I say it’s a little known fact, though I grant that it’s widely believed. This is because the only people who… Read More ›
