Ophelia Benson
Encyclopedia
Ophelia Benson is co-author (with Jeremy Stangroom
) of The Dictionary of Fashionable Nonsense: A Guide for Edgy People
, Why Truth Matters
, and Does God Hate Women?.
Benson is the editor of the website Butterflies and Wheels and Deputy Editor of The Philosophers' Magazine. She also writes a monthly column for the online version of the magazine, and also wrote under the pen name "Kassandra".
and attended university in the USA before working in a variety of jobs, including being a zookeeper
for several years, before becoming an author.
Her books and website deal with the necessity of defending objective and scientific truth against the threats to rational thinking allegedly posed by religious fundamentalism, pseudoscience
, wishful thinking, postmodernism
, relativism
and "the tendency of the political Left to subjugate the rational assessment of truth-claims to the demands of a variety of pre-existing political and moral frameworks".
Benson's book Why Truth Matters examines the "spurious claims made for creationism, Holocaust denial, misinterpretation of evolutionary biology, identity history, science
as mere social construct, and other 'paradigm
s' that prop up the habit of shaping our findings according to what we want to find".
Jeremy Stangroom
Jeremy Stangroom is a British writer, editor, and website designer. He is an editor and co-founder, with Julian Baggini, of The Philosophers’ Magazine, and has written and edited several philosophy books. He is also co-founder, with Ophelia Benson of the website 'Butterflies and Wheels'.Stangroom...
) of The Dictionary of Fashionable Nonsense: A Guide for Edgy People
The Dictionary of Fashionable Nonsense: A Guide for Edgy People
The Dictionary of Fashionable Nonsense: A Guide for Edgy People is a book by Ophelia Benson and Jeremy Stangroom.The book is a satire on post-modernism, modern jargon and anti rationalist thinking in contemporary academia...
, Why Truth Matters
Why Truth Matters
Why Truth Matters is a book by Ophelia Benson and Jeremy Stangroom published by Continuum Books in 2006.According to the cover, it is "an argument for the importance of truth, along with related values and practices of reason, inquiry, evidence, testing, peer review, and the like, and against...
, and Does God Hate Women?.
Benson is the editor of the website Butterflies and Wheels and Deputy Editor of The Philosophers' Magazine. She also writes a monthly column for the online version of the magazine, and also wrote under the pen name "Kassandra".
Background
Benson was born in New JerseyNew Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
and attended university in the USA before working in a variety of jobs, including being a zookeeper
Zookeeper
A zookeeper is a worker in a zoo, responsible for the feeding and daily care of the animals. As part of their routine, they clean the exhibits and report health problems...
for several years, before becoming an author.
Her books and website deal with the necessity of defending objective and scientific truth against the threats to rational thinking allegedly posed by religious fundamentalism, pseudoscience
Pseudoscience
Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...
, wishful thinking, postmodernism
Postmodernism
Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...
, relativism
Relativism
Relativism is the concept that points of view have no absolute truth or validity, having only relative, subjective value according to differences in perception and consideration....
and "the tendency of the political Left to subjugate the rational assessment of truth-claims to the demands of a variety of pre-existing political and moral frameworks".
Benson's book Why Truth Matters examines the "spurious claims made for creationism, Holocaust denial, misinterpretation of evolutionary biology, identity history, science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
as mere social construct, and other 'paradigm
Paradigm
The word paradigm has been used in science to describe distinct concepts. It comes from Greek "παράδειγμα" , "pattern, example, sample" from the verb "παραδείκνυμι" , "exhibit, represent, expose" and that from "παρά" , "beside, beyond" + "δείκνυμι" , "to show, to point out".The original Greek...
s' that prop up the habit of shaping our findings according to what we want to find".
Interviews
- Interview with 3:AM Magazine, 31 January 2007
- Interview with Point of Inquiry, 20 July 2007
- Interview with Little Atoms, 1 September 2006
Reviews
- "Nonsense in vogue", by Phil Mole, Skeptical Inquirer, May–June 2005 (review of The Dictionary of Fashionable NonsenseThe Dictionary of Fashionable Nonsense: A Guide for Edgy PeopleThe Dictionary of Fashionable Nonsense: A Guide for Edgy People is a book by Ophelia Benson and Jeremy Stangroom.The book is a satire on post-modernism, modern jargon and anti rationalist thinking in contemporary academia...
) - "The truth? You can handle the truth", by Johann Hari, Independent on Sunday, 14 May 2006 (review of Why Truth Matters)