The recent spate of public Quran burnings, first in Sweden and now in Denmark, and Moslem countries calling in their ambassadors – as if these demonstrations were state-sponsored – goes to the very core of the freedom of expression debate,… Read More ›
wokeism
THE LAST TO PASS JUDGMENT
There’s a word that needs to be coined – it should probably be an ism – to capture the following pattern. If you tune into CNN or MSNBC, you’ll note that they often give voice to Republicans who complain they… Read More ›
HOW TO GIVE PEACE A CHANCE
Try as it might, no constitution can include a mechanism for its own suspension, since if that mechanism were invoked it would have been constitutional to do so. That’s just a matter of logic. By contrast it’s not strictly speaking… Read More ›
WHAT GOES AROUND …
People like Caroline Hodes like to complain about people complaining about “the indoctrination of their children in our schools”. But school just is indoctrination. There’s no such thing as value-free education. So what she really means is she likes the… Read More ›
UNWOKE U
Jonathan Haidt has argued that a university can seek truth, or it can pursue justice, but not both. He’s right about the dichotomy, but I’m not sure he’s best identified the two choices. Getting the truth is far above anyone’s… Read More ›
HACKLES
Jonathan Haidt has argued that a university can seek the truth, or it can pursue social justice, but it can’t do both. This is not because the two are never one. As often as not they are. But that means… Read More ›
WHAT IS WOKEISM?
If I’m going to be anti-woke – by which is meant, presumably, that I’m going to remain asleep – I suppose I should get clear about what Wokeism is. Pluckrose and Lindsay define it as reified post-modernism. That gets us… Read More ›
“PHILOSOPHY, POLITICS, AND LAW” AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LETHBRIDGE
My hypocrisy abounds. How so? Because I can no more define wokeism than the woke can define racism or indigenisation or decolonisation or any of the myriad indefinables that make up their vocabulary. What I can do, however, is ostend…. Read More ›
BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR
There’s probably nothing more indicative of the war between the Woke and the Pushbackers than the battle over trans athletes being allowed to compete in women’s sports. I’ve taken the side of the Pushbackers, but suppose it turns out we’re… Read More ›
TAKING NAMES
There’s been a great deal of palaver of late – palaver in which I’m now ashamed to have participated – about the cancel culture that’s now doing a number on the academy. I’m ashamed not because I shouldn’t play my… Read More ›
Paulosophical Vimplications 