AC Grayling has taken up my thread about certainties and proofs in the Guardian.

Is there anyone alive today above the age of nine, and halfway sane, who would assign a prior probability of 50% to the existence of fairies on the ground that “we do not know whether or not there are fairies”? Is there anyone who satisfies these conditions who seriously thinks that we do not know that there are no fairies?

It’s not very good though, despite the high density of fantastic phrases like Archgoblin of Chanctonbury and kindness needs no ideology.

As an aside, I love the knack that philosophers have for making lists of things

by which we daily make our toast, catch our buses, use our laptops, cure our coughs, fly to Ibiza, etc etc

Stephen Pinker and Daniel Dennett are particularly good at this (wait here while I track down an example for each).

Did you know that comes from the Greek philo meaning lists of things and sopher which means maker? They are literally, makers of lists of things.