This paper by Colleen Keating on stage view presentism (.pdf format) deserves a lot more attention than I can devote to it right now.
A nice plug for my alma mater by a Washington Post sports writer, of all people.
Kevin Kim at Big Hominid posts the following quiz:
Look at these two comments:1. Islam has a history of violence and currently represents a grave danger to Western civilization.
2. (uttered by the same person a moment later) Of course, Christianity cannot claim to have a pristine history of nonviolence. Witness the Crusades, or even modern examples of violence in places like Ireland.
QUESTION: Based only on the above evidence, would you consider Position [1 + 2] an example of moral equivalence and/or cultural relativism? Justify your answer. Send me an email.
The obvious answer: No. It’s neither. The quickest way I know to justify my answer is to rephrase the two comments so that they, in conjunction, would exemplify those nasty doctrines:
Moral equivalence:
Islam has a history of violence and currently represents a grave danger to Western civilization. Christianity also has a history of violence, and represents a grave danger to Islamic civilization.
Cultural relativism:
From a Western point of view, Islam appears to be a religion of violence and to constitute a grave danger to Western civilization. From an Islamic point of view, Christianity appears to be a religion of violence and to constitute a grave danger to Islamic civilization. There’s no way to resolve this conflict of opinion, or even to quantify which is “more violent.” Points of view is all there are.
Finally, check out Todd and Jennifer’s neat new Fisterra Studios website.
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