IWD

One day here at the University of Toronto I was stepping into the elevator at 215 Huron Street (the philosophy department is located on the ninth and tenth floors). There were several people already in the elevator. One of them was a Pakistani-Canadian girl I knew from my Islamic Philosophy class the previous year. We hadn't talked much in class; she was taking it as part of a Near Eastern Studies program, I was taking it as part of a Philosophy program, so we never really met outside of class. However, when I stepped onto the elevator her face lit up as if I had been an old friend.

The reason is that she observed hijab, in a way that was quite conservative (everything except her eyes and hands were covered). One of the other people on the elevator, as he entered, had pointed to her veil and said, very angrily, "That's a sign of oppression. You should take it off."

Not only was she uncomfortable, she was a bit frightened at the angry tone of his voice and the equally angry looks he gave her. So, when she saw me come into the elevator, it was a great relief; she remembered me from the class. After the young man got off the elevator, she told me all about it, and we talked a bit. Fortunately, such incidents were rare, although apparently she had occasionally come across similar uncomfortable and even frightening situations. We finished by talking a bit of Islamic philosophy - she was apparently doing something with al-Kindi's discussions of the 'Cosmic Man', which sounded very interesting. [That should read 'al-Arabi's' rather than al-Kindi's. Wow; that was a big slip, since the two aren't very similar at all. An odd trick for the memory to play. -- BW.] And then we parted, and we haven't met up again. But the incident made a vivid impression.

What brings it to mind is International Women's Day. That we have accomplished so much in the cause of women is a reason for a bit of celebration. But I hope there will eventually be a day in which nice Muslim girls will not be agressively accosted on university campuses in major liberal democracies and treated so poorly. I have no doubt that the young man meant well, and meant to place himself on her side; but instead of being on her side, in that elevator he put himself in opposition to her. (This memory is one reason why I get so impatient at the tone of some who consider themselves progressives.) May God grant that we will all be a little bit wiser than that young man.

Some Readables

* The Call of Holiness: A Sermonette at FQI

* The Memoirs of Gluckel of Hameln (Hat-tip: Early Modern Notes)

* On contraception (selections from Anscombe on the subject) at NWW.

* A Methodological Argument for Realism at Studi Galileiani

Butler on Capital Punishment

It is not man's being a social creature, much less his being a moral agent, from whence alone our obligations to good-will towards him arise. There is an obligation to it prior to either of these, arising from his being a sensible creatuer; that is, capable of happiness or misery. Now this obligation cannot be superseded by his moral character. What justifies public executions is, not that the guilt or demerit of the criminal dispenses with the obligation of good-will, neither would this justify any severity; but, that his life is inconsistent with the quiet and happiness of the world: that is, a general and more enlarged obligation necessarily destroys a particular and more confined one of the same kind inconsistent with it. Guilt or injury then does not dispense with, or supersede the duty of, love and good-will.

Joseoph Butler, Fifteen Sermons Preached at the Rolls Chapel, Sermon IX.

Virtue Jurisprudence

I found this post on virtue jurisprudence at "Legal Theory" very interesting. I hope also to be able to read Solum's paper, which focuses on judicial phronesis (prudentia). This kind of discussion warms my neo-Scholastic heart.

Chrysostom on Mutual Submission

"Subjecting yourselves one to another," he says, "in the fear of Christ." For if thou submit thyself for a ruler's sake, or for money's sake, or from respectfulness, much more from the fear of Christ. Let there be an interchange of service and submission. For then will there be no such thing as slavish service. Let not one sit down in the rank of a freeman, and the other in the rank of a slave; rather it were better that both masters and slaves be servants to one another;--far better to be a slave in this way than free in any other; as will be evident from hence. Suppose the case of a man who should have an hundred slaves, and he should in no way serve them; and suppose again a different case, of an hundred friends, all waiting upon one another. Which will lead the happier life? Which with the greater pleasure, with the more enjoyment? In the one case there is no anger, no provocation, no wrath, nor anything else of the kind whatever; in the other all is fear and apprehension. In the one case too the whole is forced, in the other is of free choice. In the one case they serve one another because they are forced to do so, in the other with mutual gratification. Thus does God will it to be; for this He washed His disciples' feet.

John Chrysostom, Homily XIX on Ephesians

Insoluble Question

The Flann O'Brien quote in the previous post puts me in mind of O'Brien's short story, "An Insoluble Question". Every student of philosophy should read it! Alas, I think I myself have already gone for a few too many cups of dark, mysterious, uncharted tea. Fortunately, to this point I have escaped with my life.

Blogs and Science

Chris at "Mixing Memory" has an excellent post with advice for bloggers (and others) on writing about cognitive science issues; and I think it applies to writing on any scientific matters. It's advice that's occasionally a bit difficult for us laymen to follow, particularly in a blogging forum, but excellent advice. I think it does show a quandary the lay public is in, and has been for a long time. Lay society is simply not set up in such a way that it can keep pace with scientific research; the lay public is not well-equipped for distinguishing real claims from crank claims; it is continually receiving misinformation it has only limited resources for filtering, and so forth. It's a fascinating problem; in part because it has no obvious solution. In my very limited experience, Chris's #3 is dead on. I remember reading Mendel's Demon by Mark Ridley (it has a different title in the U.S.; I forget what it is), and about halfway through the book realized that I had no real clue what he was intending to convey, nor why he was intent on conveying it. For all I really could tell he was trying to say something about snarks and boojums (literally, since he talks at great length about snarks and boojums when dealing with mitochondria; I understood that stuff, probably better than he did himself, but what it really was supposed to say about mitochondrial DNA, I don't rightly know). Biologists who already completely know what he's talking about might enjoy it. But my thought was, "How is somebody who doesn't already know about this subject supposed to distinguish the metaphor from the reality it is being used to describe, the guesswork and speculation from the established fact, the basic biology from the absurd little flourishes this author apparently thinks constitutes a literary writing style? How can someone without all the background knowledge needed to filter through all this - in short, much of the book's actual readership - come away from this without having been entirely misled?" How does the lay public both take advantage of scientific work and do so in a way that keeps reasonably up to speed, so as to deal with the obsolescence of scientific information, and avoid being misled and do it all in such a way that it can manage it even given all the other claims on its time, interest, and resources? As Sergeant Pluck says, ""That is a great curiosity, a very difficult piece of puzzledom, a snorter."

In any case, Chris's posts suggests to me one of the potentially valuable things about blogs (and in the case of blogs like his own, actually valuable), since they can answer a need that otherwise isn't really met: putting at least part of the lay public in touch with the most recent relevant literature, correcting the most obvious common misunderstandings, etc. We'll see how far the blogosphere helps in matters like these; but it's at least promising.