I know that the New York Times isn't particularly well-known as a publication of philosophical rigor, but this article in yesterday's issue just really irritated me with its pseudo-philosophical babble trying to tie together philosophical theories of mind, theological theories of soul, and evolutionary science in a neat little pop-science package:
The result is perhaps the strongest challenge yet to the worldview summed up by Descartes, the 17th-century philosopher who divided the creatures of the world between humanity and everything else. As biologists turn up evidence that animals can exhibit emotions and patterns of cognition once thought of as strictly human, Descartes's dictum, "I think, therefore I am," loses its force.
The big issue, of course, is that this completely misses Descartes' point. Cogito ergo sum, I think therefore I am, is the same as: I think therefore I exist. It simply means that if i were in a world where I couldn't believe a single thing that I perceived with any certainty (suppose I'm in the Matrix), I could still have access to one bit of knowledge: by virtue of the fact that I can think I must exist.
It's true enough that Descartes separated humans (as soul-owners) from other animals. But this particular quotation, apart from being sound bite–worthy, has nothing to do with Descartes' separation of humans from animals. Furthermore, the view that humans are unique has been universal in western thought since western thought has existed. I don't mean to sound pedantic, but the Times can surely do better than this fluff.
I recently decided to update my résumé since it had fallen into disrepair. In addition to new experience and credentials, I felt I needed to give it a little facelift as well. I opened up my old Word document version (in NeoOffice) and began to apply some of the suggestions in this article—but I found the process really irritating and quirky. So I tried using Google Docs but I found it just as unsatisfactory. Zoho is usually better than Google Docs, but no luck there either.
Finally I decided to just create my own (X)HTML version. So this is my résumé. After I'd put together a valid XHTML 1.0 Strict template, I decided that maybe others might find it useful, so I'm sharing a stripped-down version of the template. If you find it useful or have any questions/suggestions, let me know.
Up until recently ( play or download mp3), Deborah Rodriguez has been congratulated as a conscientious activist for social change in Afghanistan. Her work in putting together a beauty school in Kabul where, up until a few years ago, the Taliban would publicly beat women for putting on makeup is just the sort of heartwarming story that Hollywood and American book publishers love.
In fact, they loved her story so much that Random House gave her an $80,000 advance for the book and there's a movie deal in the works.
And the plucky budding Afghan beauticians?
They get nothing. They get worse than nothing. Apparently, they claim that Rodriguez promised she would not publish photos of them because they live in a violent repressive society (remember how Islam is a religion of peace?) and they feared their lives would be in danger if it ever became public knowledge that they are running a beauty school. Sure enough, those photos did appear in the book—the book that has earned the Afghan women nothing—and they do now fear for their lives. And where's that warm-hearted made-for-Hollywood heroine from Michigan amidst all this? Long gone. She left Afghanistan last month. But she hasn't fully abandoned her friends:
Rodriguez says that she knows the women are angry and terrified—but that they should realize that things take time. She also claims the girls misunderstood what she promised them.
That's right, ladies . . . I mean girls, I know you're afraid because I knowingly endangered your lives after I promised I wouldn't, but you have to realize: they were giving me a lot of money! Surely you see that, right? And it's not like I've completely forgotten about you: I'm working really hard to get you out this mess, but these things take time. And of course I want to share some of my newfound good fortune with you:
She says she plans to give the girls a small part of the royalties from the book, along with 5 percent of her earnings from the movie Sony Pictures is planning.
