Book Review: “Fashionable Nonsense” 20 Years Later

In 1996 physicist Alan Sokal published a seemingly pretentious but otherwise innocuous paper entitled Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity in the postmodern journal Social Text. After its publication, Sokal announced that the paper was designed as a deliberate parody of post-modernism’s appropriation of scientific jargon. It was filled with largely meaningless or even… Read More Book Review: “Fashionable Nonsense” 20 Years Later

Dilip

Literature from the Congo Basin offers ways to address the climate crisis

The African continent is responsible for only 2–3% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions from energy and industrial sources. But it’s alarmingly suffering from the effects of the climate crisis, as reports from the UN and others show. On the positive side, Africa has a huge potential for climate mitigation, especially thanks to its tropical rainforests. The Congo Basin’s rainforests in central Africa… Read More Literature from the Congo Basin offers ways to address the climate crisis

Dilip

Peniel E. Joseph: The US Supreme Court is about to take a huge step away from racial justice

The leaked opinion draft, authored by conservative justice Samuel Alito, overturns the landmark 1973 ruling as well as the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision that placed stricter rules on abortion rights, but upheld the constitutionality of Roe. The draft, in the strength of its language, also illustrates the court’s ideological turn – despite conservative… Read More Peniel E. Joseph: The US Supreme Court is about to take a huge step away from racial justice

Dilip

Coffin carrying veteran journalist's body shown falling as Israeli police beat mourners with batons / Shireen Abu Aqleh: press freedom under attack

There was unrest in Jerusalem Friday as thousands attended the burial of veteran Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot dead two days earlier while reporting on a military raid in the West Bank city of Jenin. Mourners had marched from Jerusalem’s Jaffa Gate to Mount Zion cemetery. They were met with violence at the St.… Read More Coffin carrying veteran journalist's body shown falling as Israeli police beat mourners with batons / Shireen Abu Aqleh: press freedom under attack

Dilip

Tarushi Aswani: Government Assents to Coal Mining in Hasdeo Forests in Central India – tribal women continue their resistance against destruction of forests

A decade of resistance against mining activity, displacement, and deforestation met with defeat on April 6, when the Chhattisgarh government gave its final assent for felling of trees and commencement of mining activity in Hasdeo in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh. Back in 2011, the gram sabha (village assembly) of Ghatbarra village in the Hasdeo… Read More Tarushi Aswani: Government Assents to Coal Mining in Hasdeo Forests in Central India – tribal women continue their resistance against destruction of forests

Dilip

Sondeghar village of Maharashtra: Hindus and Muslims signed a 100-year agreement to stop riots

Sondeghar is a small village in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra. The place the inhabitants is barely one thousand. Folks of all castes and religions stay collectively on this village. The village has unanimously taken a historic resolution in order that there needs to be no spiritual or communal dispute. Folks of all religions collectively within… Read More Sondeghar village of Maharashtra: Hindus and Muslims signed a 100-year agreement to stop riots

Dilip

Michael D. Gordin: One Must Imagine Faust Happy

Fascination with the relationship between knowledge and power never dies. In just about every intellectual tradition, in essentially every documented era, the topic bristles through the canon, though the European tradition appears especially fixated upon it. Are the two domains compatible? Are they even distinct? Does the latter corrupt the former? While the philosophical treatments… Read More Michael D. Gordin: One Must Imagine Faust Happy

Dilip

Alexei Yurchak on why Putin hates Lenin and how today’s Russia resembles the late Soviet Union

‘It’s impossible for the system not to change’    While waging war on Ukraine, the Russian state has intensified its already tight control over the Internet, press, and opposition at home. Meanwhile, the anti-war opposition has resorted to what are essentially guerilla tactics. Many politicians, journalists, and activists were forced to leave the country to avoid… Read More Alexei Yurchak on why Putin hates Lenin and how today’s Russia resembles the late Soviet Union

Dilip

Karen J. Greenberg: Accountability Is Wearing Thin in 21st-Century America

The Sophists taught, rather publicly, that the summit of happiness is to combine the appearance of justice with actual injustice: G. A. McBrayer; On the origin of the Idea of Natural Right; in Brill’s Companion to Leo Strauss, 2005; p 44 Even before the Samuel Alito opinion on Roe v. Wade became public, our justice system was… Read More Karen J. Greenberg: Accountability Is Wearing Thin in 21st-Century America

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Sri Lanka crisis: Politicians' homes set afire, shoot-at-sight orders as protests against govt intensify

Troops and military vehicles have been deployed in the streets of Colombo amid widespread protests against the government over the economic failure of the country. The army said this was done to “ensure public security”, a news report said. On Tuesday, the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence ordered the Army, the Air Force and the… Read More Sri Lanka crisis: Politicians' homes set afire, shoot-at-sight orders as protests against govt intensify

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