I read Andreas Malm‘s book, How to Blow Up a Pipeline a few months ago, then watched the movie, and then was reminded of it all again by Abigail Thorn’s latest Philosophy Tube video about being plagiarized by a man. Thorn explains how subtle sexism led to free labour in the home. Even
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A Puff of Absurdity: On Lookers and Thinkers
Can we teach how to think and problem solve our way out of a total collapse? I’m curious why some people are facing it all head on, reading the news and studies and watching the clips about Covid, climate and so many conflicts. I wonder if I’m one of the
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: How to Know
We need to fight back on the idea that there’s nothing we can really know. When I taught, more and more I’d run up against the claim that there’s nothing we can know in the world. I believe that it’s a dangerous situation if we think science is on par
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Marxism
It’s such a go-to now to call the enemy some version of a communist in a weird throwback to 1950s America and McCarthyism. And now the leader of the opposition accused the Prime Minister of being a Marxist, and he said it like it’s a bad thing! Lisa B0923 explains why Trudeau
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Our Duty to Others IS Love
In my class recently, we were asked to get into groups to get a reading down to one key word. The passage was on Confucius, and it was about human-heartedness, taming unruly impulses, filial piety, benevolence, and justice. In my little group, I suggested it’s all about love. My group
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: 3QD: Tossing the Canon in a Cannon
I’ve started contributing to 3 Quarks Daily once each month. Here’s my first: Tossing the Canon in a Cannon – about choosing philosophers to read that aren’t posthumously tainted by racist, sexist, or homophobic commons mixed in with more useful arguments.
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Srinivasan’s "The Right to Sex"
“It is absurd to contend that vice, ecstasy, and passion would become impossible if man and woman were concretely peers” (xiii). ~ Simone de Beauvoir Amia Srinivasan’s book rivals Kate Manne’s fantastic Down Girl in the most exciting way. It’s an absolute must read for anyone hoping to improve themselves
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Interview with the Guelph Back-Grounder: On Teaching Critical Thinking
In early February, just before immersing myself into the current quad of online teaching, a friend of a friend interviewed me for a local independent journal. I thought it would be all about teaching during a pandemic, but together we meandering through a diverse chain of topics for about 90
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Gertz’s Nihilism
A year after coming out with Nihilism and Technology, Dr. Nolen Gertz wrote just plain Nihilism, an “examination of the meaning of meaninglessness: why it matters that nothing matters.” It’s a really short book, but it took a while to wade through it all. Here it all is even more briefly
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: An Eye for an Eye in Cancel Culture
Some finish that with “… leaves the whole world blind,” but that somewhat belies the meaning of the phrase. The idea is that we should never take a drop more than equitable retribution. It’s was written in the Code of Hammurabi almost 4,000 years ago: “If a man put out the eye
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: A Bit about Cancel Culture and Academic Freedom
I’ve written before about how I support free speech but don’t support giving platforms to “White Nationalists” or neo-Nazis or any other racist group who could use the venue to garner more followers. My concern is with audience members who might be easily led or looking for a place to
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Developing a Consistent Self
In a New York Times article, “What do teens learn online today?“, Elizabeth Weil suggests that kids are on the right track when they stream every inch of their anguish and joys in countless video tutorials aimed at, perhaps a necessary clarification, other teens. Weil says, “It’s nice if our fellow
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Gertz’s Nihilism and Technology
I really love this book. First of all, the chapter headings and sub-headings are all clever little in jokes, like “Beyond Google and Evil,” that make anyone with a cursory knowledge of Nietzsche feel like part of the gang. But it’s not just looking at tech through the lens of
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: If We Could Be as Smart as Frogs
I regularly tell students about our likely future. It’s often met with skepticism, so I provide lots of citations from the IPCC and NASA. Then I sometimes get a lecture on being so doom and gloom. Denial is our go-to defence against reality. But for whose benefit? It’s just for
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Is This the Sixth Estate?
The “Fourth Estate” is an antiquated term for unofficial social and political forces, primarily the media. Use of the term recognized, over two centuries ago, that the media affect social change. But once that became clear, it became a tool of the establishment. The church, politicians, and corporations started using
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Reading and Writing
I teach grade 12 university-level philosophy, and I teach it as a university prep-course. So we read primary sources, and we write essays longer and more complex than the standard five paragraphs. And then I brace myself for the complaints. Why do we have to read about other philosophers? Why
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Teaching Philosophy to Children
There are several articles and discussions being reported about teaching philosophy to children. They largely focus on the question should we, why, and how? Britain has a program, Philosophy for Children (P4C), in which student get in groups to discuss philosophical issues after seeing a video or reading a story
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Sex Ed, Double Standards, and the Red Herring of Consent
We discussed Erin Anderson’s article from Friday’s Globe and Mail in my philosophy class on Friday, and it provoked a whole gamut of topics. I’ll try to encapsulate some of them here. The article starts with an important question: “The question left is whether we’ll waste this moment, leaving the teenagers today
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Alain de Botton
de Botton Alain de Botton wrote one of my favourite under-praised books, Status Anxiety. I also quite like using his Consolations of Philosophy in my class as an additional resource because it simplifies and grounds some theories for the kids. And I show his TEDTalk on atheism 2.0 every semester
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: It Doesn’t Matter
It doesn’t matter why they’re dressed as a tiger, have they got my leg? Just one more thing about educational reform. Well, for the weekend at least. It relates to the video above because we’ve spent years talking about why we need to make these changes, why these new ideas
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