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Scientism May or May Not be the New Creationism
In a recent article on the Scientific American website, science writer, (pop)-psychologist, and general “skeptic” Michael Shermer argues that Liberals are “at war” with science. Ignoring the...
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Addendum: Kevin O’Leary is a Bigger Stereotype than I Thought
A while ago I wrote a sarcastic post about CBC commentator, loudmouth, and rich-guy caricature, Kevin O’Leary. I didn’t spend a lot of time researching O’Leary; the post was mostly just a lament about...
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Easter Eggs in the Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy
Philosopher Simon Blackburn’s Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy has been an invaluable resource in my studies, and to my general philosophical thought, since my undergraduate days. While decidedly...
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The Proliferation of Phatic Communication, Or, of Cats and Ice Cream
I find myself more and more often going through a frustrating routine which involves signing into facebook, reading through the latest status updates, and after a bit of eye rolling and disappointment,...
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Some Pretentious Wittgenstein Name-Dropping
“Hastings-on-Hudson is a village, in a Wittgensteinian sort of way,” Mr. Wallach said. (Quoted in “Creating Hipsturbia“) Intellectual name-dropping is a favourite pastime of pretentious people and a...
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Why Don’t Climate Sceptics Actually Fund Research?
I have had many people tell me that I should read more George Monbiot, because I would really like him. Apparently we have similar ideas. Regretfully, I’ve never actually read anything he’s written...
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Sexism at an Unnamed Film Awards Show
So last night apparently there was an award show which ostensibly celebrates excellence in film making. And apparently the person chosen to host these awards made a variety of sexist jokes, which has...
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Some Thoughts on Jasanoff, “Science and Reason in the Public Sphere”:...
Yesterday afternoon I had the pleasure of hearing Sheila Jasanoff give a talk as part of York University’s STS Program’s Seminar Series, in which she spoke on the subject of “Science and Reason in the...
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What Kind of Accountability Does the Public Expect From Science?
Climate change is an endlessly useful example for examining issues of public science, and it was Jasanoff’s preferred case study in her talk that I discussed in my previous post. As I noted there, the...
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Do Cyclists Pay for Drivers’ Use of Toronto Roads?
Last week I happened upon this story about Washington State representative Ed Orcutt who, in a defence of a proposed flat $25 tax on all new bike sales, questioned the environmental benefits of...
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Why I Don’t Trust (Some) Police, Or, Some Cops are Bullies and Liars
One night two summers ago, I was walking with my friends Dave and Nick when we encountered a group of about five or six men and one woman. The woman approached us and chatted amicably with us, when one...
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Conversing with Capitalists, Or, I am not a Communist
Occasionally I meet people who really love capitalism. They proudly call themselves capitalists. They extol its virtues. They confidently explain to me how capitalism fairly distributes scarce...
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The Publicly-Funded Convenience of Cars
Like most issues, people engage with transportation mainly in an individualistic way. Hence most “debate” about transportation infrastructure, as in this most unoriginal and unthoughtful piece, merely...
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The Conference Board of Canada Greatly Overestimates the Degree to which...
Recently the Conference Board of Canada released a study that claims that upwards to 90% of Ontario road costs are covered by drivers. The purported findings of the study were gleefully touted by all...
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The Unnecessary Contradictions of a Conservative
Recently Andrew Sullivan offered an elegant and virtuous definition of conservatism: For a conservative should not be implacably hostile to liberalism (let alone demonize it), but should be alert to...
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No Longer Topical Canada Post Post
Now that I’m on Twitter, I realise that if I want to keep up with the daily polemics I have to be willing to masquerade my knee-jerk, unthoughtful reactions to some super-topical event as studied...
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Agnosticism is De-facto Atheism
I have long found the drawing of distinctions between agnosticism and atheism a dubious affair. Conventional wisdom has it that agnosticism involves a suspension of belief or disbelief in the existence...
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Agnosticism is De-facto Atheism, Continued
I started working on a reply to some of the comments of my last post, and decided I might as well as use it as an excuse for a new post. My last post was a bit of normative philosophy. … Continue...
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Why Do Men Defend Jian Ghomeshi?
Since the bombshell about Radio Q host Jian Ghomeshi broke, I have seen a lot of predictable responses on the internet. The predictable victim-blaming, the predictable “innocent-until-proven” guilty...
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Cartoon Controversy Redux (In Memoriam Charlie Hebdo)
This was the first blog post I ever published, written almost 9 years ago in response to the Jyllands-Posten cartoons, when I was a sophomoric philosophy undergrad. Not a particularly good piece, and...
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