Muslim "Just say no"

Today's (29 May) SMH has Mulism sex education plans: based on "Just say no" and lack of information the way Catholic sex education was in the old days:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/muslim-sex-education-just-say-no/2006/05/28/1148754873032.html

Wierzbicka book, re epistemic restraint

Of interest is the new book by Anna Wierzbicka (ANU), English: Meaning and Culture. It's about how the English language in particular incorporates a favourable view of being reasonable and balanced. From the blurb, "She dissects the ideas of `fairness' and `reasonableness' and shows that, far from being cultural universals, they are unique creations of modern Anglo culture." She gives a lot of credit to Locke for doing it.

What I've been up to

Hi guys! Sorry it's taken me a while to join up - I was overseas on a conference trip. Anyway, my contribution at the moment is very much on the side of 'epistemological self-control'. With the very able help of Daniel I'm slowly getting my head around the current landscape in virtue epistemology. A lot of work currently being done in the area seems to me at least so far to be a relatively shallow trading in -isms. In-depth discussion of plausible examples is rare.

Christopher Hookway has an interesting paper on 'epistemic akrasia'. One example he examines in detail is that of a mother who receives word that her son has committed a horrible crime and naturally doesn't want to believe it. This can be a genuine epistemological analogue to ethical akrasia, but only if the mother is actually aware that she is, for example, refusing to examine or accept all available evidence. Part of his conclusion is that some of our epistemic virtues are 'managerial' - correct husbanding of finite epistemic resources.

I've also just come across a paper by Michael Bishop entitled, "In Praise of Epistemic Irresponsibility: How Lazy and Ignorant can you Be?" (Synthese 2000). But I haven't read it yet.

Ideally I'd like to work up a paper on this stuff for the AAP, but don't have much time left...

AFR Magazine piece on the project

Last Friday's (Apr 29) Australian Financial Review Magazine (p. 16) had a piece on the Restraint Project, based on an interview with me. Hard to say how it worked, but it managed to mention Aristotle, Jane Austen, Jean Curthoys etc.