Owning Our Ignorance

If the government were to redefine normal weight as one that doesn’t increase the risk of death, then about 130 million of the 165 million American adults currently categorized as overweight and obese would be re-categorized as normal weight instead.

—

Our Imaginary Weight Problem - NYTimes.com

Americans have become increasingly obsessed with the supposed desirability of thinness, as thinness has become both a marker for upper-class status and a reflection of beauty ideals that bring a kind of privilege.

In addition, baselessly categorizing at least 130 million Americans — and hundreds of millions in the rest of the world — as people in need of “treatment” for their “condition” serves the economic interests of, among others, the multibillion-dollar weight-loss industry and large pharmaceutical companies, which have invested a great deal of money in winning the good will of those who will determine the regulatory fate of the next generation of diet drugs.

Anyone familiar with history will not be surprised to learn that “facts” have been enlisted before to confirm the legitimacy of a cultural obsession and to advance the economic interests of those who profit from that obsession.

Jan. 2, 2013 at 3:00pm with 1 note

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Making Resolutions That Stick

Resolutions work!

Dec. 31, 2012 at 2:38pm

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“

[P]hilosophy… creates… minds that can — as Aristotle suggests — entertain a thought without accepting it. … [T]he open-minded study of different philosophies at least opens one up to the possibility that one is wrong. One realizes, like Socrates did, that knowledge is anything but certain, that true wisdom lies in realizing how much one does not know, in understanding that our knowledge of the universe (and therefore of earthly things like politics) is utterly inadequate, perhaps comparable to the area of a pin’s tip against a table. This realization makes one less angry when confronted with opposing views, replacing counterproductive anger with productive curiosity.

— Michael Shammas: For a Better Society, Teach Philosophy in High Schools

Dec. 10, 2012 at 3:01pm with 30 notes

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Rachel Maddow on the Value of Philosophy

“There are skills that you learn by becoming academically skilled at doing historical work and reading and writing philosophy that will help you make arguments about everything from whether you should get your tires rotated, to whether that right person should marry you some day, to whether or not you’re going to get in the door of heaven. And being able to deal with evidence in a rational, substantive way is something that you learn through the study of history and philosophy. And it’s just worth doing in life. …It will make you a more effective person in life.”

Dec. 9, 2012 at 3:01pm with 1 note

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Tamar Gendler talks with Andrew Solomon about his book Far from the Tree

This is the best smart thing I’ve encountered all year

Nov. 27, 2012 at 3:00pm

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Paul Bloom and David Pizarro on the politics of disgust