Ophelia Benson is an American author, editor, blogger, and feminist. Benson is the editor of the website ''Butterflies and Wheels'' and a columnist and former associate editor of ''

The Philosophers' Magazine ''The Philosophers' Magazine'' (''TPM''), an independent quarterly magazine founded in 1997, aims to provide a venue for philosophy in an accessible and entertaining format. The founders were Julian Baggini and Jeremy Stangroom. The magazine i ...

''. She is also a columnist for ''

Free Inquiry ''Free Inquiry'' is a bimonthly journal of secular humanist opinion and commentary published by the Council for Secular Humanism, a program of the Center for Inquiry. Philosopher Paul Kurtz was the editor-in-chief from its inception in 1980 until ...

''. Her books and website aim to defend objectivity and scientific truth against what she sees as threats to rational thinking posed by

religious fundamentalism Fundamentalism is a tendency among certain groups and individuals that is characterized by the application of a strict literal interpretation to scriptures, dogmas, or ideologies, along with a strong belief in the importance of distinguishi ...

pseudoscience Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or falsifiability, unfa ...

, wishful thinking,

postmodernism Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or Rhetorical modes, mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by philosophical skepticism, skepticis ...

relativism Relativism is a family of philosophical views which deny claims to objectivity within a particular domain and assert that valuations in that domain are relative to the perspective of an observer or the context in which they are assessed. Ther ...

, 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". Her website is called ''Butterflies and Wheels'' because, according to the website itself, "

Mary Midgley Mary Beatrice Midgley (' Scrutton; 13 September 1919 – 10 October 2018) was a British philosopher. A senior lecturer in philosophy at Newcastle University, she was known for her work on science, ethics and animal rights. She wrote her first b ...

borrowed

Alexander Pope Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, ...

’s witticism about breaking a butterfly upon a wheel, only she did it wrong."

Background

Benson was born in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, and attended university in the United States, before working in a variety of jobs, including being a

zookeeper A zookeeper, sometimes referred as animal keeper, is a person who manages zoo animals that are kept in captivity for conservation or to be displayed to the public.Hurwitz, Jane. Choosing a Career in Animal Care (World of Work). New York: Rosen Gr ...

for several years, before becoming an author.

Published works

In 2004, Benson co-authored '' The Dictionary of Fashionable Nonsense'' with

Jeremy Stangroom Jeremy Stangroom is a British writer, editor, and website designer. He is an editor and co-founder, with Julian Baggini, of ''The Philosophers’ Magazine'', and has written and edited several philosophy books. He is also co-founder, with Opheli ...

. It is a satire on post-modernism, modern jargon and anti-rationalist thinking in contemporary academia. ''The Times Literary Supplement'' said "With wit and invention, Benson and Stangroom take us through the checklist argot that so often litters postmodern texts." In 2006, Benson and Stangroom published ''

Why Truth Matters ''Why Truth Matters'' is a book by Ophelia Benson and Jeremy Stangroom published by Continuum Books in 2006. It was widely praised on its release, and reviewed in the ''Times Literary Supplement'', ''The Guardian'' and the ''Financial Times''. A ...

'', which examines the "spurious claims made for creationism,

Holocaust denial Holocaust denial is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that falsely asserts that the Nazi genocide of Jews, known as the Holocaust, is a myth, fabrication, or exaggeration. Holocaust deniers make one or more of the following false statements: ...

, misinterpretation of

evolutionary biology Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes (natural selection, common descent, speciation) that produced the diversity of life on Earth. It is also defined as the study of the history of life fo ...

, identity history, science as mere social construct, and other '

paradigm In science and philosophy, a paradigm () is a distinct set of concepts or thought patterns, including theories, research methods, postulates, and standards for what constitute legitimate contributions to a field. Etymology ''Paradigm'' comes f ...

s' that prop up the habit of shaping our findings according to what we want to find". In 2009, Benson co-authored ''Does God Hate Women?'' with Stangroom. The book explores the oppression of women in the name of religious and cultural norms, and how these issues play out both in the community and in the political arena.

References

External links

Butterflies and Wheels
website
Freethought Blogs
former website

Interviews

Interview with 3:AM Magazine
January 31, 2007
Interview with Point of Inquiry
July 20, 2007
Interview with The Freethinker
May 16, 2008 {{DEFAULTSORT:Benson, Ophelia Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American women bloggers American bloggers American feminist writers Atheist feminists Critics of postmodernism Writers from New Jersey Women's rights support from the irreligious 20th-century atheists 21st-century atheists American atheism activists American women non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American women writers