In a recent post, Ross Douthat invokes “cynicism” to justify not being bothered by McCain’s dishonesty. This is a fairly common use of the word “cynic”–roughly, someone who approves of gross mendacity at home and murder abroad. This use of the word is a relatively new one; somehow, “things are bad, so everything is permissible” [...]
Monthly Archives: September 2008
This fortnight in blog carnivals
Posted by Chris Hallquist on September 15, 2008
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If you’re mad that I didn’t recently link to your edition of a blog carnival, I’ll get better at this, I swear. Anyway, here’s the latest round of catching up I need to do: *The 77th Philosopher’s Carnival *Tangled Bank nos. 112 and 113 *The 25th Humanist Symposium *Carnival of the Godless nos. 99 and [...]
Belief
Posted by Chris Hallquist on September 11, 2008
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In philosophy, we are taught that belief is a component of knowledge, that Plato suggested that knowledge is justified true belief, and that Gettier argued that justifcation is not sufficient to make true belief knowledge, though Gettier never questioned that true belief is part of knowledge. Outside of philosophy, a lot of people think belief [...]
Is Sarah Palin hot?
Posted by Chris Hallquist on September 11, 2008
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That’s what Will Wilkinson thinks, as does this writer for Salon. And Katharine, commenting here, seems to think there are guys on campus who would vote for her because she is hot. I’m personally not seeing it. Now Condaleezza Rice? Yes, at least the one time when she wore the quasi-dominatrix outfit (note: I don’t [...]
Marx and free markets
Posted by Chris Hallquist on September 10, 2008
7 comments
Here’s a lecture that will help some for understanding the last two lectures, as well as being vital for understanding the next. How many people in this room are aware that sweatshops are evil? Sweatshops, as in overseas factories where big evil clothing corporations like Nike pay workers hardly anything and force them to work [...]