News of The Academy

Kopio's post about cigars got me wondering what people here think about society's obligation to pay for the ever-growing medical costs related to tobacco use (and abuse). While I am opposed to the government trying to tell adults they are not allowed to smoke, I do wonder if it should be society's responsibility to pick up the tab when these obviously poor choices lead to the inevitable (heart disease, emphysema, stroke and a whole host ...

I recently ran across Reading and Christian Charity (by way of this blog, which I noticed in my referrer logs pointing at the Greek dialects discussion). What struk me especially is how the author is defending literature against essentially the same arguments post-modernists use to deform literature.

The post-modern agenda is essentially moral. One might of course object that the agenda is actually immoral, but my point is that the goals are phrased in terms ...

There has recently been a series of articles in the San Francisco Chronicle about the local school system and its problems. One of the major facts brought up is that San Francisco has the largest percent of K-12 students attending private schools of any American city - 29% to be specific.

In less than two weeks I'm graduating from high school. I come from a white middle class family which owns its own house in ...

Can an unjust war be won?

Normally, discussing God’s existence, argumentations would look quite similar to this one:

(1) God exists.
(2)
(3) Yes he does.
(4)
(5) Yes he does!
(6)
(7) YES HE DOES!!!
(8 )
(9) Therefore, God exists.

I searched the internet, and to my surprise, I found more interesting and serious arguments proving God’s existence. The most convincing argument so far is considered Goedel’s ...

I have lately noticed here in "The Academy" the occasional use of words with positivist provenance, e.g., "verifiable". I have no problem per se with the use of such words and expressions. But I do object to what those who use such terms seem to think is a consequence of their use: that they have said something incontrovertible; that their poor interlocutor - be he a man of faith, a metaphysician, or cut from some ...

In another thread, Bert mentions that the Bible is an added source of knowledge about the universe, apart from empiricism. Just a couple of questions:

Which Bible? In what form? The Bible as it was originally compiled, or the many millions of changes that have taken place in the text since the first book was penned?

Why is it considered a source of knowledge apart from empiricism? Why is it uncritically accepted but not the ...

Hi guys!

I have just read Cratylus from Plato (not yet in greek :cry:) and I found very interesting the strong explanation, sometimes even sarcastic, to language.
Well, I could talk about a thousand nice things within this dialogue but now, I've realized that he never mention anything about the gender of the names.

There was a thing that catch my attention in the ...

A compound sentence is characterised by containing two or more clauses. Traditionally, the Grammar distinguishes between independent and dependent clauses. The grammatical relations uniting these clauses are diverse. How many are they?

Hi,

I am curious what our European Textkitters (and others) think about the observations herein:

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news ... 04297e45de

Cordially,

Paul