thoughts in and out of season
Mr. Kalb,
Be sure to check into Frank Turek’s website: http://www.crossexamined.org/
What bothers me is Frank does not nail down his arguments but gets distracted by obfuscators such as Crowell. I mean “I don’t know” is a belief despite Crowell’s arguments. End the discussion there. I expect you could expose Crowell as a nominalist. All … More ...
The paradigmatic traditionalist American Catholic Bill Buckley has died. There is a good obituary in the New York Times:
http://tinyurl.com/ysr942
This is inspired by the recent Houellebecq discussion. In sum, and in further praise of Houellebecq, I believe he is at least aware of the cutting edge of psychological thought, and incorporated it into “The Possiblity of an Island.”
From the book:
“The day’s orator was a very tall, thin, bald guy, impressively serious –when … More ...
For a laugh or a cry, or both, depending on how you look at it, click here for a bizarre MSNBC “news” story.
I got into an interesting discussion (if I do say so myself), over at 2 blowhards, with a cryonics enthusiast, on a post about ageing, here.
I was wondering what thoughts Mr. Kalb or any other Turnabout regulars (or occasionals like me) might have on the whole cryonics movement. What do you think the … More ...
Jacques Lyotard, a prominent postmodernist, has this to say about the status of knowledge in modernity:
“Our working hypothesis is that the status of knowledge is altered as societies enter what is known as the postindustrial age and cultures enter what is known as the postmodern age. This transition has been under way since at … More ...
The issue is secularization. The term has many definitions and contours, and many have offered various descriptions and explanations.
Steven Weinberg is a Nobel particle physicist, working presently at the University of Texas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Weinberg
Weinberg recently published a piece in the Times Literary Supplement in which he claims 1. a loss of religious “certitude” in … More ...
Tufts materialist philosopher Daniel Dennett wrote a book entitled “Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon.”
David Hart reviewed the book in the January issue of First Things, “Daniel Dennett Hunts the Snark.”
http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=5428
The thesis of Dennett’s book is that the “phenomenon of religion” arose as the result of natural evolutionary biology, and … More ...
Arthur Schlesinger, a fine embodiment of modern liberal stasis, died last week. Schlesinger, along with JK Galbraith, represented that satisfied liberalism that died an unnoticed death sometime in the late 60’s or early 70’s. Figures like Schlesinger and Galbraith—and the brand of liberalism they represented—became instantly irrelevant during that time, although they personally never caught … More ...