Beyond Necessity

The most satisfying refutation is one that not only shows why your opponent is wrong, but why he thinks he is right .

A much better post today from the Maverick. Greece was a powerful tonic. God made it last of all the countries, and had little left over ...

Some economists talk about the 'Mars bar index', i.e. using the price of a Mars bar as a metric for inflation, or to measure the rel...

I will be avoiding the internet for a week, possibly two, in order to concentrate on writing the new book.  I wish all my readers a happy an...

Maverick posts about The Afterlife .  Giles Fraser used to go on in this vein, saying how the perfect life would become boring after a long ...

Maverick quotes John Locke (great English philosopher and father of the American constitution) on the impossibility of two beginnings of ex...

I've been amusing myself on this site finding out what passwords people used to access the compromised site LinkedIn. Type in a passwor...

Larry Sanger's recent post brought out the usual idiotic comments. But some thoughtful and clever comments too, in particular from some...

So we drove down the A3, whizzing past the village of Ockham, where the real Ockham (reputedly) once lived, and aimed for the wilds.  We re...

It's well known that 'queer theorists' successfully reclaimed the term 'queer', which used to be a term of abuse for hom...

By Larry Sanger here .  The logic of arguments for and against porn is interesting, although I don't have a great deal of time to go int...

I just noticed the Maverick’s comment on C.J.F. William’s obituary here, and was struck by the fact that his wheelchair-bound existence was...

Der Gedanke ist der sinnvolle Satz . Someone made a video of this, and I felt so sorry for it (only 43 views) I felt compelled to  link to ...

It's Sunday, which is traditionally a time for reflection on higher matters, when the pub plays light jazz on the juke box instead of so...

Yesterday I discussed arguments for the broadly materialistic principle that "we can characterise thought and understanding entirely w...

I never thought it possible. A nice shiny new tap. A shame about the fungus bits at the bottom of the tiles.  However not all is well.  T...

Another excellent post by the Maverick on a topic in which he excels, namely the hamfisted and sophomoric way in which scientists deal with...

Joey Essex ( My London , Evening Standard, 27th April 2012) says I had a nightmare the other day. It felt like I was still asleep but I wa...

Lest anyone accuse me of bias against the internet encyclopedia Wikipedia, here is something about the inadequacy of its arch-rival Britanni...

Two records broken today. First, today's page views exploded to over 1,000 for the first time in the history of Beyond Necessity . Usual...