Category: General

Sloping Burdens

Over at Brainstab we’ve been having a bit of a debate on the nature of certain slippery slope arguments. The slippery slope argument is one of those ‘sometimes fallacious’ lines of reasoning. The actual structure of a slippery slope is what is called an hypothetical syllogism (or chain argument) which looks like:

P1. If A then B
P2. If B then C
Therefore,
C. If A then C

It is a perfectly valid argument form, but that doesn’t mean much at all, because the premises themselves can be implausible (more…)

10/09/2006

Funny but true…

(Yes, I am overly fond of ellipsis… And yes, I am probably not using them appropriately)

My plan of updating on Monday’s and Thursday’s hasn’t been working out for the last few weeks, mostly because the work I’m doing at the moment is mostly rewriting earlier pieces of work and we call that ‘editing.’ Editing usually means that no new content is being produced and so I’ve taken a break from reading up on Conspiracy Theories and caught up with all the other reading I should have been doing.

Except for this week. For this week, Matthew, I have mainly been reading philosophers on Conspiracy Theories or, more properly, re-reading all the existing philosophical literature (of which there are about twelve pieces). For this week I am writing the initial literature review.

The lit review is one of those little academic exercises you have to do before you can mount an attack or defense upon an idea or notion. The purpose of the lit review is to a) show that you understand what everyone else has said on the topic and b) reveal that there is an issue or inconsistency that these authors have overlooked or not dealt with adequately. I’m in a fortunate position, in re a lit review, in that all the literature I need to cover (in this section, mind) fits into a small 140 page hardcover. Most thesis writers are usually looking at summarising and connecting the views of several dozen authors who may well have written three or four articles or books apiece on the topic.

If there is any issue in writing a lit review then it revolves around the fact that there are so many ways of doing it. I could write a strictly chronological version which deals with each article in turn. I could deal with it on an author by author basis or I could start with one author who I think typifies the kind of definition of Conspiracy Theory I think is common in the literature and deal with it thematically (and it is this version I’m trying to write now).

Which I should get back to.

Trah.

10/02/2006

A conspiracy to believe in

There aren’t many things happening today I would label as being properly conspiratorial (where by ‘properly conspiratorial’ I mean ‘something like a malevolent, all-embracing conspiracy (theory)) but the Intelligent Design Movement gets my vote in that category. It’s just that when pressed I can’t really condemn it as a great, singular evil but more the garden-variety maliciousness that is the old-school-bully-turned-politician. (more…)

09/21/2006

Quickshots

Short-ish reviews of stuff I’ve been a-watching:

Blade: The Series – Oh so much better than I thought it would be. It’s greatest strength has also ended up being it’s mightiest weakness; it’s virtually one 13-part story and if you missed the first few episodes then you have no chance at all in working out why he’s doing her and why he hates them and why Sticky Fingaz is Wesley Snipes. It’s currently jettisoning plot-points and characters in preparation for this week’s finale and I, for one, can’t wait to see how it ends.

It’s also remarkably well-written’ Blade himself isn’t an interesting character and so the stories really rely on the supporting cast. You’ve got all the (current) cliches; ex-military hardwoman, the asian sidekick, the eurotrash vampire villain and the Australian-playing-as-a-Brit sexpot but none of them are written as cliches; it’s almost as if they are using visual stereotypes against us. Charlotte, the two-hundred year old Pureblood (played by a 14-year old) was so well acted that at times I thought she had to be a midget actress of thirty. Pity that it looks as if season two is very much on the cusp.

Eureka – The pilot showed so much promise and the latter episodes have been dull, uninspired and incredibly predictable. It’s too family friendly and the promise of wacky science has not been borne out. At this stage I’m not inclined to watch the rest of it let alone hold out for the finale in which I am sure the Orb from Brisco County, Jr. will be playing a major role.

Prediction – the glowing ball in Section Five is from the future. It probably brings a message of love or the ability to resurrect the dead.

Supernatural – I’m a fourth of the way through season one and it’s okay but not great. The two brothers know too much about the monsters they face and so it lacks a little mystery to make the proceedings enticing. It’s also predictable and the brothers continually split up and get into trouble despite the fact that they know that splitting up gets them into unnecessary trouble. I probably will watch this one to the end of season one because there’s enough promise in it to think that a season two rejig with a few more cast members could make this a light-and-fluffy entree to more serious fodder.

Stargate – SG-1 – It looks as if season ten is the end of this show, which is a pity as it finally seems to be back on track with a huge heaping of the humour that made the early seasons so likeable. It helps that Claudia Black is in every episode now. It probably needs one more season to fill out the Ori plot (otherwise it’s going to have a very rushed ending) and this would also allow the new characters to finally settle in. Still nowhere near the glory of the first five seasons but few shows can make it to 215 episodes and stay completely fresh. Episode 200, entitled ‘200’ is probably the best fan-wank a show has ever had.

Stargate – Atlantis – Didn’t take to the first season of this show; thoroughly enjoyed season two and feel the same about this third season. Like it’s mother show it isn’t ground-breaking but it’s more than competent on every level. I still find it fascoinating that they are able to create consistent faux-physics; once a rule is set in the Stargate Universe then it always applies, which means the show can generate its own issues in a plausible way and not really rely on deus ex machinas.

And everyone loves Rodney.

Holding out for: Lost Season Three and Battlestar Galactica Season Three.

Hoping good things for: Torchwood.

09/14/2006

The Left-hand of Politics

Serious question time.

One – When I refer to ‘left’ in the title of the post, what meaning of ‘left’ am I referring to?

Two – Are Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theories inherently sinister/malevolent?

It’s an important question. (more…)

09/14/2006

September the Eleventh

I’m hesitant to write anything about September the Eleventh. For one thing, despite being not being that way inclined, part of me worries that saying anything about September the Eleventh will cause something to happen (true story; one of my best friends has his birthday on the 11th and he complained one year that nothing ever happens for his birthday. The next day it did happen.) and I don’t really want to get involved with rumour mongering.Yes, for the student of the Conspiracy Theory today is as important as that day in November back in 1963.Bomber Bradbury, Auckland ‘personality’ and former Craccum editor, has posted a list of 101 ‘issues’ surrounding the Official View of 9/11. (more…)

09/12/2006