This had me in stitches. Apparently Darwinian philosopher Daniel Dennett (who's out and about promoting his new book) has fallen out with fellow Darwinian, British-Born philosopher Michael Ruse. Ruse warns against taking evolutionary theory too far, so that it becomes an argument for atheism. Anyway, during the tiff (see here for detail) Dennett emailed Ruse suggesting he was being enlisted by the dark side. So Ruse replied:
"I am a full professor with tenure at a university known chiefly for its prowess on the football field, living out my retirement years in the sunshine – I have no reputation to preserve, and frankly can say and do whatever the fuck I want to without sinking further".
"I am a hardline Darwinian and always have been very publicly... in fact I am more hardline than you are, because I don’t buy into this meme bull*** but put everything... in the language of genes".
Reflecting on the fall out, Ruse apparently had this to say:
'I think he [Dan Dennett] finds it very difficult when people don’t say to him 'you were fantastic. Can I warm the bog seat for you before you take a crap?'".
He's a pretty cold guy - I'm not sure he'd be much of a seat warmer. But I'm not a big Dennet fan, so heeheehee.
--YY
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