Marc | December 22, 2008
It certainly seems as if my previous post on the idea of evaluating the HTS caused a fair bit of reaction on both theoretical and epistemological grounds. I thought it would be worthwhile to pull out some of the ideas I talked about in that post a little more. And, I’ll admit, that I was [...]
Marc | November 18, 2008
For over a month, now I have been wresting with ideas about education, training and ethics. Last night, I received an email from a student asking me if we could have an extra class added into my course in applied epistemology so that everyone who is presenting could have more time for their presentations. In [...]
Marc | October 1, 2008
Note: This is a very difficult post for me to write. The difficulty doesn’t lie with the subject area but, rather, in what language I will have to use in order to try and communicate my thoughts on the topic. One of the axiomatic assumptions that professions, as a group, seem to hold is a [...]
Marc | September 30, 2008
One of the nice things about being a pessimistic romantic is that one can still have a sense of wonder about everyday things. That sense of wonder kicked in again today upon reading a very nice, plain English exposition by Cobalt on why Anthropologists working with the US military can be unethical (actual, “a dick”; [...]
Marc | September 24, 2008
In much of the debate over the past several years on the potential ethical dangers of the relationship between Anthropology and the Military, the vast majority of the ethical concerns that have been raised have, to my mind, been based on a collectivist model of ethics (aka “morality”). I’ve noted this in a several posts [...]
Marc | September 23, 2008
Canadian universities are suffering from an ethical failure of nerve. Many of us have become diffident about our roles as professors, administrators, staff and students. We seldom engage in genuine debate about the university’s role in society. We seldom discuss the good and bad uses to which our research might be put. We seldom ask [...]
Marc | September 2, 2008
One of the more interesting ethical problems in the Anthropologists cannon is the question of when you are required to lie. For me, it is not only three particular question of when you must lie but, in reality, the perceptual assumptions that structure that “ethical” injunction. This wasn’t much of a problem for me in [...]
Marc | August 19, 2008
For over a year, I have been using the term “Witch Hunts”to refer to the actions of some people who are violently opposed to the existence on the Human Terrain System. It is important that people realize that when I use that term, it is not being used in the normal meaning of political hyperbole [...]
Marc | August 11, 2008
Last month, Hugh Gusterson published an article in Foreign Policy entitled When Professors go to War that sparked a fair bit of commentary. This article just sparked a new exchange on the FP site. First, Peter D. Feaver at Duke, responded with a rebuttal called Pentagon Funding? Bring it on. In which he characterizes Gustersons’ [...]
Marc | August 3, 2008
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. “The Scottish Play”, Act 5, Scene 5 To pleasant songs my work was erstwhile given, and bright [...]
Marc on A Human Terrain System for Canada?
Pascale Siegel on A Human Terrain System for Canada?
JWC on Tribal Engagement Workshop: the Time dimension
Daniel Gallant on Some thoughts on games
MM on An important letter on the state of science