http://mdickson.com/blog Words of Mass Dissemination Thu, 12 Oct 2006 16:12:25 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en My previous post (“Manners”) was a rather optimistic look at the potential benefits of the academic life for students (and faculty). This post is the other side of that coin. I currently teach a class in which students are asked to learn. I don’t mean that they are asked ... http://mdickson.com/blog/uncategorized/10/ First posting of the new academic year! I hope some people find this somehow worth reading. The following is, more or less, the content of a short talk that I gave to the entering class of the South Carolina Honors College, at their 2006 ‘convocation’. I had intended to supplement the text with ... http://mdickson.com/blog/philosophy/9/ Last night, I drew cards from a deck. The first card was the Ad. Then came 2d. Then 3d, 4d, 5d, 6d, 7d, 8d, 9d, 10d, Jd, Qd, Kd. The next card was the As, followed by 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 6s, 7s, 8s, 9s, 10s, Js, ... http://mdickson.com/blog/philosophy/8/ WARNING: This post is really just a little philosophical essay. It is also quite inconclusive. Moreover, it would not pass muster with professional philosophers. There are, for example, no references to what other people have said about this matter. And so on. However, for ... http://mdickson.com/blog/philosophy/7/ The debates over creation science (and more specifically, intelligent design) and evolution continue to heat up, although reasoned discussion (indeed, successful communication) is still difficult to find. It is difficult to say anything about the issue without being abruptly labeled an insensitive supercilious atheist or an anti-intellectual blind ignoramus. ... http://mdickson.com/blog/science/6/ [Recently I was asked to speak to the inductees of the Philosophy Honors Society (Phi Sigma Tau) at the University of South Carolina. What follows is a rough approximation of what I said, rewritten for a wider audience.] In Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe, a spaceship full ... http://mdickson.com/blog/uncategorized/5/ The other day I drove past the headquarters of the South Carolina State Lottery and noticed that its official name is the “South Carolina Education Lottery”. In fact, they use this name in their advertising. Tonight the estimated jackpot is $20 Million (but, as they are ... http://mdickson.com/blog/uncategorized/4/ ‘Intellectual honesty’ covers a lot of territory. It obviously forbids plagiarism, in all of its varieties. But it covers other ground as well. For example, an experimental scientist who announces a result while knowingly withholding data that contradicts the result has acted intellectually dishonestly. A philosopher ... http://mdickson.com/blog/philosophy/3/ Lewis Libby has been indicted. What aspect of the indictment did you find most surprising? I personally was hardly surprised by the presence of corruption, dishonesty, and arrogant disregard for others in the White House. But I did learn something new from the indictments — the origins ... http://mdickson.com/blog/uncategorized/2/