New Yorker Portrait of Derek Parfit

Beg, borrow, or steal, but if you find ethics and ethicists interesting, you must, simply must, read the portrait of Derek Parfit in the Sept. 5 New Yorker (subscribers only). This is a fantastically, deliciously strange article.  I've got to think the robotic writing style ("He did this. He did that. He did the other."), the choppiness, the absence of "place" and interaction (did Larissa

Heavy Liphting

A couple of days ago my friend "Aeolus" suggested that, what with all the elevator scenarios around here (see "elevator ethics" under "topics"), I ought to ... well, I'll just quote him--
Jean: For your next book, I suggest HEAVY LIFTING: The Ethics of Elevator Encounters. (Alternative subtitle: The Ethics of Small Spaces.) Seriously. It could be a fairly short book, written to be accessible to

Elevator Story, Trois

Seriously.  This is from Philip Galanes' advice column in today's New York Times--

I am a dark-skinned Mexican woman with a baby who has the lighter skin of her American dad. We live in an apartment building on the Upper East Side. Often, I find myself on the elevator with residents whose comments make clear that they assume I am the nanny or a maid on my way to work. Granted, I’m not in my best

James Wood on New Atheism

From now on I'll just say "what James Wood says"  Brilliant, and based on his recommendation, now I have a novel to read next--Niels Lyhne, by Jens Peter Jacobsen.

The Confession of Joel Marks

Joel Marks is a recovering moralist, as he confessed a couple of days ago at The Stone. What I find especially notable about his column is the way it's reminiscent of other confessions--especially Tolstoy's (excerpts here). Only Marks's journey is in the other direction--from belief to disbelief, and what's at issue is objective morality. Here's a very Tolstoyan passage:
A friend had been

Philosophy Phrases That Sound Existentially Exciting but Aren't

How's that for a file folder?  I have just two items to put in it today.

"To be is to be perceived."  Surely this is about today's "look at me" way of life. If you just did something--planted a garden, hiked up a mountain, read a novel--and didn't tell the world on Twitter or Facebook or Google+ or by texting someone (etc) it didn't really happen, wasn't really worth doing.  That's what we're

Google Syllabus

There's already Google Books and Google Mail, and Google Everything Else.  Note to the Google Guys: you ought to have Google Syllabus.  This would be great for people trying to teach themselves things, and also for faculty fine-tuning syllabi for new courses.  You can hunt and peck for syllabi online, but it isn't easy to find what you're looking for, and a central depository would encourage

Elevator Story, Deux

I'm not kidding!  This is a great example of how unconscious assumptions can make women invisible--

I'm at a philosophy conference outside of the US. I think there may be even fewer women in philosophy in this country and its neighbors than in mine. The conference hotel is small, and philosophers don't look quite like most of the other guests. There are no nametags, and the conference just

Today's Talk

Let's not have another conversation about all "that", but this may interest commenters on my "Feminism and Atheism" post.

Today I gave a talk at the Fellowship of Freethought in Dallas, which meets one Sunday morning every month in a church-like manner, complete with potlock lunch, activities for kids, social justice initiatives, activism, and music.  This month's meeting theme was the now

How to Do Things with Moons

In case you missed it.

Travel/Book Log

A few travel pictures, finally, along with a book report.  So I finally decided not to decide what to read on our trip to England and Amsterdam, thanks to being able to bring a bunch of stuff on my ipod.  First up--on the plane--a preview of Amsterdam (well, 17th century Amsterdam).  I read half of Rebecca Goldstein's book about Spinoza.  I promise to read the second half soon.

When we landed in

It's Just Moonplay

Note: I received these photos in an email last week, and can now tell you the photographer's name: Laurent Laveder. More pictures are here and they are also available as postcards and as a small book.


























thanks to rm

Nim Chimpsky

The Troubled Life of Nim Chimpsky by Peter Singer | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books

Haven't seen the movie yet, but it's high on my list.