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Tuesday, February 13, 2007

New York Review of Books

There is positive news today of progress in negotiations with North Korea to halt its development of nuclear weapons. The most recent issue of The New York Review of Books has an excellent article by Richard Bernstein that places the current six-party talks in the context of prior negotiations and North Korea’s internal politics.

The New York Review of Books is available at Kellogg-Hubbard along with about 100 other periodicals. The NYRB is, in my opinion, among the best. It’s been published since 1963, with an amazing array of writings from historians, poets, academics, scientists, and journalists. The letters to the editor can be quite entertaining as writers take reviewers to task. For example, in the current issue, Allen Orr responds to criticism of his review of Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion:
Finally, Dennett [author of the letter criticizing Orr’s review] fundamentally misunderstands my review. He seems to think that I'm disturbed by Dawkins's atheism and pointedly asks which religious thinkers I prefer instead. But as I made clear, I have no problem with where Dawkins arrived but with how he got there. It's one thing to think carefully about religion and conclude it's dubious. It's another to string together anecdotes and exercises in bad philosophy and conclude that one has resolved subtle problems. I wasn't disappointed in The God Delusion because I was shocked by Dawkins's atheism. I was disappointed because it wasn't very good.
What fun!

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