"Warming the Bog Seat" and Other Philosophical Terminology

It is an old story, but it is such a good story. And I have recently come across some articles that I had not seen before. If you missed the delightful email exchange between Daniel Dennett and Michael Ruse, you must start with that. It is not to be missed.

Through this post on the Evolution News blog, I discovered this further defense by Dennett. This in turn pointed me to another article on the affair here, which contains this profound quote from Michael Ruse:

Let's face up to it: all Dan was doing was slagging me off. He has had an absolutely brilliant career - he is regarded as something of a demigod in the philosophical community. I think he 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?'

Finally, if you enjoyed the disparaging review of Dennett's latest book by Leon Wieseltier in the New York Times, which I discussed here, then you may be interested in reading Dennett's letter to the Times in response, which is followed by Wieseltier's reply.

My previous post on the Bunting article is here. My previous post on "Daniel Dennett: the Original Darwinian Fundamentalist" is here.