Thursday, May 19, 2011

Conspiracy Theories about the Synthese Brouhaha

And no, this isn't just so I can use the word "brouhaha" again.

Well we know the conspiracy theory of James Fetzer: the ID movement threatened the editors-in-chief of Synthese, until they caved and issued their disclaimer.

But Fetzer hasn't gone deep enough for me. Why would Synthese issue a special edition of their journal and allow the avowed enemies of ID to say whatever they wanted to say about the people they so despise?

Some ideas: The editors-in-chief of Synthese wanted to say all those nasty things about ID proponents, but knew that they couldn't and still maintain their high scholarly level. So they came up with the idea of a special edition, where the known enemies of ID could be do the dirty work for them. Then, in case there was an outcry against the low level of etiquette in the special edition, the editors-in-chief could issue their disclaimer and wash their hands of the whole mess.

OR, they really could care less about ID, but were willing to do anything to improve dwindling subscriptions of their journal, knowing they could always issue a disclaimer if things turned sour.

OR, they really like the word "brouhaha" and wanted to see somebody use it in conjunction with their Synthese.

I think you know which alternative I prefer.

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