Bon Mots

Mr. Dion is the outsider from within the party, whereas they are the establishment candidates, an ironic twist for Mr. Ignatieff, who spent most of the past 30 years outside the country, and for Mr. Rae, who spent all 30 years outside the party.
jeffrey Simpson Globe and Mail Sept.24

Knowledge vs bullshit

Here http://www.powells.com/tnr/review/2006_11_02 is a review of Harry Frankfurt's new volume On Truth which is the successor to his very successful monograph "on Bullshit." Regarding the latter, the reviewer (Simon Blackburn ) writes:'Frankfurt put his finger on on the esential characteristic of the bullshitter,which distinguishes him from the liar.The latter is concerned to communicate something false as if it is true.The former is iondifferent as to whether what he communicates is true or false,"

Multiculturalism

Multiculturalism is central to Canada's self image, to what it is to be a Canadian,and to the curriculum of teh Arts and Science program But multiculturalism is not without problems. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20061120.COSHEEMA20/TPStory/?query=multiculturalism
Here is an article by a Muslim woman on one of the most difficult issues of multiculturalism,namely how our respect for different cultures might conflict with women's rights.

Knowledge,Descartes

An http://www.newyorker.com/critics/books/articles/061120crbo_books article about Descartes in the New Yorker, written by Anthony Gottlieb,author of "The Dream of Reason," a highly readable history of western thought from the Greeks to the early modern period.
The article emphasizes the point that in his own time Descartes was better known as a scientist than as a philosopher, his life as a wanderer, that God not the self was the centre of his philsophy, and that he was desperately anxious to unite the mind and the body-so are we all. Sadly, he was discovered by Court ladies and amateur intellectuals before he was taken seriously in any university.