What’s going on here?

Synapses is a repository for columns, rants and reflections, mostly on secular humanist issues and politics in South Africa. Please take a look around, and leave a comment if so inclined. You can also subscribe by RSS, or follow me on Twitter.

Who writes this stuff?

All the content, unless otherwise specified, is the work of Jacques Rousseau. If you want to get in touch with me, here are some contact details. Please do not reproduce content elsewhere without linking back to the relevant post.

Comment policy

I'm a firm believer in free speech. However, there are ample opportunities for venting of spleen elsewhere on the internet. I reserve the right to edit or delete comments that exceed the threshold of my tolerance for stupidity or malice.
Open ↓
You are here: Home / epistemology

epistemology

To ask for evidence is not (necessarily) scientism

To ask for evidence is not (necessarily) scientism

Posted July 28, 2010 by Jacques Rousseau

Of course there are many things that we don’t know. But that doesn’t afford us the liberty to make the answers up, or to depend for answers on people who have made them up in the past.

Posted in , , | Tagged , , , | Leave a response

The dangers of tolerance

Posted April 8, 2010 by Jacques Rousseau

We should all – secular and religious alike – be encouraging the treatment of these Catholic child-abuse allegations as regular criminal cases, where suspects are arrested, questioned and sentenced if found guilty.

Posted in , , | Tagged , , , , | 8 Responses

Preliminary thoughts

Posted March 29, 2008 by Jacques Rousseau

Much of what I’ve been interested in over the last decade or so has revolved around epistemology, and in particular virtue epistemology – in other words, questions around what it is that we should believe, and how we should form our beliefs. These are normative questions, and raise a whole bunch of issues relating to [...]

Posted in | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a response