Ophelia Benson

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Ophelia Benson is co-author (with Jeremy Stangroom) of The Dictionary of Fashionable Nonsense: A Guide for Edgy People ISBN 0-285-63714-2 and Why Truth Matters ISBN 0-8264-7608-2.

She is the editor of the website 'Butterflies and Wheels' and Deputy Editor of 'The Philosopher's Magazine'. She also writes a monthly column for the online version of the magazine [1] and also wrote under the pen name 'Kassandra' [2].

Benson was born in New Jersey and attended university in the U.S.A. before working in a variety of jobs, including being a zookeeper for several years, [3] before becoming an author.

Her books and website deal with the necessity of defending objective and scientific truth against the threats to rational thinking allegedly posed by religious fundamentalism, pseudoscience, wishful thinking, postmodernism, relativism and "the tendency of the political Left to subjugate the rational assessment of truth-claims to the demands of a variety of pre-existing political and moral frameworks." [4]

Benson's book Why Truth Matters examines the "spurious claims made for creationism, Holocaust denial, misinterpretation of evolutionary biology, identity history, science as mere social construct, and other 'paradigms' that prop up the habit of shaping our findings according to what we want to find." [5]

[edit] External links

• Butterflies and Wheels
• Interrogations
• Interview with 3:AM Magazine
• Interview

[edit] References

• Skeptical Inquirer, May-June, 2005 "Nonsense in vogue" by Phil Mole Review of The Dictionary of Fashionable Nonsense
• Independent on Sunday, The, May 14, 2006 - "The truth? You can handle the truth" By Johann Hari Review of Why Truth Matters by Ophelia Benson and Jeremy Stangroom

• Lichtig, Toby. "The Dictionary of Fashionable Nonsense: A Guide for Edgy People.(Book Review)." TLS. Times Literary Supplement 5313 (Jan 28, 2005): 33(1). Expanded Academic ASAP. Thomson Gale. TORONTO PUBLIC LIBRARIES (CELPLO). 31 Oct. 2006
• Taylor, Laurie. "The hip and the dead.(The Dictionary of Fashionable Nonsense: A Guide for Edgy People)(Book Review)." Times Higher Education Supplement 0.1672 (Dec 24, 2004): 28(1). Expanded Academic ASAP. Thomson Gale. TORONTO PUBLIC LIBRARIES (CELPLO). 31 Oct. 2006
• Amazon.com - The Dictionary of Fashionable Nonsense Includes quotes from reviews in Times Literary Supplement and Times Higher Education Supplement