Michael Ruse’s Spelling Test

Michael Ruse is a prominent philosopher and a bad speller. Should this puzzle the rest of us?

via Brainstorm

Health-care reform is set to become my King Charles’s Head. I am going to find it difficult to write anything without it coming up in the middle. Fifty-seven million people in the United States of America without healthcare insurance and we — at least those blocking reform — call ourselves a Christian nation. Shame, shame, shame. But, spurred by a well-merited criticism of my last blog, I want to write about something else that has been on my mind and which I intended to raise at some point. So why not now?

I have in my possession a school report from when I was about 10 years old. My mother was a schoolteacher and we took school reports very seriously in my family. They were not glanced at, signed, and then forgotten. They were returned, stored safely, and discussed on pertinent occasions in the future. The report, said he modestly, is pretty good. “Sports” is a bit off, but generally I was nicely on track. However, then we come to “Spelling.” “B, Michael is improving.” Well, there was room for improvement and I am afraid it did not go far. As my perceptive critic noted, I simply cannot spell. On this occasion, I got “miniscule” for “minuscule,” but this is nothing. Some words I just blank out on. The other day, I could not for the life of me spell “cloathes,” you know those things you put on. I can never spell “campaing,” the thing that was the end of Napoleon in Russia. And you may ride in an automobile, but I ride in a “vehcule.” And when it comes to, well you know what it is when you have had too many prunes and it begins with a d, I cannot get close enough to look it up in a dictionary.

Science and Money

Where does the buck stop? The NYT TierneyLab looks at science and money, along with all of the attendant “conflicts of interest” between sound science and the money tied up in it. Read here >>

Editing the History of Canadian Literature

Manuela Constantino of the quarterly Canadian Literature picked the perfect interview subjects for their latest issue: editors and contributors from The Cambridge History of Canadian Literature, including our own Sarah Stanton.

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Descartes: The Dutch Connection

We think of René Descartes as a French philosopher, given that he was born in La Haye, France. Descartes, however, felt most at home among the Dutch.

In 1618 he joined the army of the Dutch commander, Maurice of Nassau and even long after leaving the military, he chose to reside in the United Provinces of the Netherlands. His return to France in 1620 ended in 1623 with a pilgrimage to Italy, which Descartes undertook as thanks for a series of dreams (he interpreted these as divine revelations of his future path as a philosopher). Descartes returned to France again in 1623 but finally left for good in 1628.

Frustrated with the social obligations that life in Paris imposed on him, Descartes took refuge in the Dutch Republic whose people he praised for not prying into his business.

Balogh Interviewed on With Good Reason

Historian Brian Balogh was recently interviewed on With Good Reason, discussing the (surprisingly) active 19th century government that laid the foundation for America’s rise.
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