About Rationally Speaking


Rationally Speaking is a blog maintained by Prof. Massimo Pigliucci, a philosopher at the City University of New York. The blog reflects the Enlightenment figure Marquis de Condorcet's idea of what a public intellectual (yes, we know, that's such a bad word) ought to be: someone who devotes himself to "the tracking down of prejudices in the hiding places where priests, the schools, the government, and all long-established institutions had gathered and protected them." You're welcome. Please notice that the contents of this blog can be reprinted under the standard Creative Commons license.

Monday, August 01, 2005

Welcome, everyone!

Hello there,

welcome to my new blog, about politics, science, religion, philosophy, and every other conceivable application of that most rare of human abilities -- critical thinking!

This thing started several years ago (August 2000, to be precise) as a monthly Internet column, published on my main web site as well as on dozens of other mirror sites across the globe. But the Internet changes, and the blogosphere is here now. So, starting today, just about five years after the beginning of the column, Rationally Speaking becomes a blog.

For those interested in my other writings, of course check out my main web site, as well as my regular columns on Skeptical Inquirer, Free Inquiry and Philosophy Now. You may also be interested in some of my books, like Tales of the Rational, or Denying Evolution. If you are curious about what I do for a living, go to my lab's site.

I'll be back soon with the first actual posting to get us started!
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11 comments:

  1. AYDIN ÖRSTANAugust 01, 2005 3:04 PM

    Welcome, Massimo.

    I have already added a link to Rationally Speaking from my blog, snailstales.blogspot.com.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousAugust 01, 2005 5:34 PM

    Hey, Massimo, have fun in the blogosphere. We have the new link on www.metaphoria.org, and have been happy to carry your column for the last few years. Also, a belated welcome to the Northeast US.
    Be well,
    JeanneE/Skeptyk

    ReplyDelete
  3. Respectful EmpiricistAugust 01, 2005 7:05 PM

    Massimo,
    I am glad you have reinvigorated a blog. I will be posting it on Respectfulempiricist.com as usual and am interested in seeing the feedback on your site.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousAugust 01, 2005 11:02 PM

    This makes things much easier!

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousAugust 01, 2005 11:24 PM

    Max, why does your rational profile include your star sign and Chinese zodiac year?!

    ReplyDelete
  6. UnknownAugust 02, 2005 8:12 AM

    Tony, apparently the astrological nonsense is automatically inserted by the system, as long as you provide your profile with your birth date. I eliminated the latter, so now women interested in contacting me for dating purposes won't be able to benefit from full disclosure about my age. Oh well... :-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousAugust 05, 2005 6:54 PM

    Hi Massimo, I really enjoy your blog! May I ask a question? I really respect your science work, so I thought you might have some insight on this. A friend of mine states that "Albert Einstein believed in reincarnation." He furthur says that Einstein believed that we have "energy" that survives our death. Can you help me answer this? Thanks so much!

    John Kiel
    Indianapolis, IN

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousJanuary 19, 2007 8:24 AM

    Just a quick question...

    Any possibility that you will make more essays available for downloading on this page...

    http://life.bio.sunysb.edu/~massimo/
    rationallyspeaking/essays.htm

    I've gone through the available ones, but there seems to a be a lot more interesting stuff out there...

    Cheers
    Johan, Sweden

    ReplyDelete
  9. UnknownJanuary 19, 2007 9:15 AM

    Johan,

    I will make more essays available, from time to time. But there are issues of copyright as well as of server space...

    Thanks for the comment and interest!

    ReplyDelete
  10. AnonymousJanuary 19, 2007 11:12 AM

    Massimo,

    Thanks for the answer and thanks for all the good essays! (my favourite is "Design Yes, Intelligent No")

    Hope to see more from your pen in the future!

    John Kiel,

    I'm not an expert, but I don't think that Einstein believed in reincarnation or some mystic "energy". I think he was a follower of Spinozas God, i.e. a pantheist.

    "It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it. (...) I do not believe in immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it." /A. Einstein

    If you want to know more about Einstein I would recommend these two books...

    "Discoveries: Einstein: Decoding the Universe" by F. Balibar

    "Einstein's Universe" by N. Calder

    ...and this link

    http://www.infidels.org/library/
    modern/mathew/arguments.html

    Cheers!
    Johan, Sweden

    ReplyDelete
  11. AnonymousJanuary 20, 2007 4:35 PM

    Just one more link about Einstein...
    http://einsteinandreligion.com/

    ReplyDelete

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