Archive for the ‘Arguments’ Category
Monday, October 18th, 2021
I was reading and listening to some Steven Pinker articles and podcasts (for Quillette, I believe) talking about his new book on rationality, and one of the throwaway points he makes is that relativism about truth is a bad position. I don’t doubt that, but I’m not so sure that ...
Posted in Arguments, Philosophy | No Comments »
Sunday, July 12th, 2020
We are familiar, I suppose, with the general arguments for skepticism in the Western tradition – if only from our memories of the Cartesian argument. There are traces of something like that same skeptical procedure in the Zhuangzi, with the notable exception of the very first step in which we ...
Posted in Arguments, Philosophy | No Comments »
Thursday, July 2nd, 2020
The Dialectician Hui Shi (Huizi) (??, 370-310 BC) is mentioned in several ancient works, like the Hanfeizi and the Xunzi that have been mentioned before, but especially in the Zhuangzi. In that work he is presented as a friend of Zhuang Zhou and a foil for his jests. In c. ...
Posted in Arguments, Language, Philosophy | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 20th, 2016
Dans le livre '1421' M Gavin Menzies (désormais GM) a beaucoup de prétentions. Les critiques ont attaqués presque toutes ces prétentions, mais pour être sérieux on doit faire la distinction parmi les prétentions. Quelques unes d'entre elles décrivent un mystère qui doit être expliqué; d'autres représente une hypothèse qui peut ...
Posted in Arguments, History | No Comments »
Saturday, June 9th, 2012
Nature Climate Change has an article on ‘The polarizing impact of science literacy and numeracy on perceived climate change risks’ (NCC, 27 May 2012) written by a vast team of concerned scientists (Dan M. Kahan, Ellen Peters, Maggie Wittlin, Paul Slovic, Lisa Larrimore Ouellette, Donald Braman & Gregory ...
Posted in Arguments | No Comments »
Monday, January 23rd, 2012
Responding to no public call whatsoever, a ‘Panel of Experts' has prepared a proposal for constitutional reform. The proposal is for the Recognition of ATSI in the Australian Constitution. Given that Australia is hardly crying out for this amendment, and that the Constitution with the very small number of amendments ...
Posted in Arguments, Politics | No Comments »
Saturday, January 14th, 2012
The recent incident, reported in the New York Times (Friday, January 13, 2012), of Rick Santorum trying to present an argument against same-sex ‘marriage’ to an audience of university students indicates that teaching the fundamentals of Critical Thinking remains an uphill struggle. Here’s a partial transcript. I’ve made adjustments for ...
Posted in Arguments | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 10th, 2012
Consider the following argument by Rumi offered in explanation of Mansur al-Hallaj’s fevered declaration that he was God – a claim for which he was executed in 922:
When Hallaj’s love for God reached it utmost limit, he became his own enemy and he naughted himself. He said, “I ...
Posted in Arguments, Religion | No Comments »