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Consideration Without Judgment
The unifying idea behind my courses is that students should be able at need to offer considered judgments on the ethical aspects of decisions and actions in response to complex situations. This is a fairly conventional notion lifted from the philosophical tradition, whereby a judgment based on nuanced awareness and careful thought is preferable to… Continue reading
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From the Archive: Confessions of a Former Objectivist, part four
This is the last of my old posts on Objectivism, from February 19, 2007. **** Confessions of a Former Objectivist, part four I think that I am more or less done writing about my misspent youth, for now. I may have more to add at some point in the future. I did want to add… Continue reading
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From the Archive: Confessions of a Former Objectivist, part three
This one was first posted to A Skeptic’s Creed on February 16, 2007. **** Confessions of a Former Objectivist, part three On second thought, it may be that the paper I wrote about Objectivism during my last semester in college is best left in obscurity. Part of the problem is that I just can’t help… Continue reading
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From the Archive: Confessions of a Former Objectivist, part two
Continuing the deep dive, a post from February 14, 2007. Note that I never did post any text from the paper I wrote in my senior year at Miami. I dug it out and read it over and, as I should have anticipated, it wasn’t very good as writing. I do remember the experience of… Continue reading
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From the Archive: Confessions of a Former Objectivist, part one
This week I’m going to dig much deeper into the archive, back to a blog I maintained for a few years called A Skeptic’s Creed, of which the tag-line was “splashing around in the acid-bath of doubt.” This entry is from February 13, 2007. An interesting connection – or is it a near miss? –… Continue reading
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Hydraulic Fracturing: Toward Better Deliberation
When the conversation opened up on the second day of our November workshop, after my presentation on acceptable risk, the project team and the invited participants spent much of the remainder of the morning developing and jotting down ideas for fostering better, more informed and more constructive public deliberation about hydraulic fracturing. Our initial ways… Continue reading
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Hydraulic Fracturing: Risk v. Acceptable Risk
I have said that the first day of our workshop on hydraulic fracturing, in November, brought out a long list of risks related to hydraulic fracturing and, indeed, the engineers and scientists who participated were quite adept at identifying such risks and possibilities for mitigation. Something else came out during those first sessions, though, which… Continue reading
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Hydraulic Fracturing: Images from Under Ground
My tongue-in-cheek comment on the language of hydraulic fracturing was intended to get at the ways in which metaphors and images can affect – and sometimes skew – our understanding of risks and responsibilities. This effect can work in any direction, for or against any particular position, and it can be especially pronounced when the… Continue reading
