Friday, November 07, 2003 The Matrix Revolutions By Diana Hsieh @ 9:17 AM Paul and I saw The Matrix Revolutions yesterday. It was absolutely awful. We left feeling cheated. Why? Because so much was incoherent or simply left unexplained. Sure, the story did resolve in a superficial way, but not in a way that made sense. Essential to the greatness of the original Matrix was its tightly integrated plot and ever purposeful characterization. The second Matrix lost some of that and the third abandoned it altogether. What a waste of time. Ugh. Link / Noodles / Trackback Tuesday, November 04, 2003 Um, No By Diana Hsieh @ 11:01 PM According to this Fortune interview, Michael Shermer (the founder of the Skeptics Society) has a book forthcoming entitled The Science of Good and Evil. Based upon his answer to the first question, I won't bother reading it. Q: What makes people good or evil? A: All of us have, in our genes, the capacity for great good and great evil. Genetics determines roughly half of our behavioral tendencies, including personality, temperament, and moral and immoral behaviors. The other half is determined by culture and environment, including parents, siblings, family dynamics, teachers and mentors, and especially peer groups. As adults we are particularly influenced to do good or evil by the immediate social context and community. When you're surrounded by co-workers all hyped about a get-rich-quick pyramid scheme, it is truly hard to resist. Notice that 1/2 genes + 1/2 environment = no choice, no character, no morals. And this is supposed to be scientific? *sigh* Link / Noodles / Trackback 6th Annual Rocky Mountain Student Philosophy Conference By Diana Hsieh @ 10:51 AM This post is simply an announcement for my fellow grads students (and undergrads too) in philosophy. (Even cooler: Our department will be hosting a virtue ethics conference this spring -- and Rosalind Hursthouse will be speaking. Yeah!) 6th Annual Rocky Mountain Student Philosophy Conference Feb 20-21, 2004 Papers accepted from graduate and undergraduate students in all areas of philosophy. Keynote Speaker: Stephen Yablo, M.I.T. Submission Details Papers must be: 8-12 pages, double spaced Accompanied by an abstract of no more than 100 words Formatted for blind review. The author's name should not appear in the paper or abstract but only in a cover letter including the author's name, school affiliation, paper title, and status (graduate or undergraduate) Documents must be in Word, HTML, PDF, or plain text format For email submissions, attach the documents to a cover letter indicating the author's name, title and school affiliation and send to David.Liebesman@colorado.edu For paper submissions, send three copies of both the paper and the abstract to: Rocky Mountain Conference Department of Philosophy Campus Box 232 University of Colorado at Boulder Boulder, CO 80309-0232 The submission deadline is December 20, 2003. (Early submissions are encouraged.) No registration fee! Link / Noodles / Trackback Sunday, November 02, 2003 The Culture Wars By Diana Hsieh @ 12:03 PM Paul just pointed me to this long article on the culture wars. It is an excellent and detailed analysis of the rise of conservative opinion. Of course, I'm no conservative... although perhaps "South Park Republican" isn't so far off. Nevertheless, the broadening of this nation's cultural and political debates beyond liberalism is nothing but good news. If you're looking for something lighter, Paul also recently pointed me to this terribly freaky page of horrid album covers. *shudder* Link / Noodles / Trackback

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