Next book

REASON IN THE BALANCE

THE CASE AGAINST NATURALISM IN SCIENCE, LAW & EDUCATION

In a brilliantly controversial polemic, Johnson (Law/Univ. of Calif., Berkeley) fires an intellectual broadside against what he sees as the marginalization of theism in public life and explores its implications for society and religion. According to Johnson, the established philosophy of the US is now what he calls ``Naturalism,'' a highly reductionist view that the world exhibits no intelligent design and that, except in the minds of believers, God does not really exist. Johnson holds that this establishment is essentially religious, in the sense that its metaphysical mindset not only permeates the world of science but also guides society in its ultimate values and decisions. He highlights the irony that this view is actually less tolerant than its predecessor since, in a new form of excommunication (intellectual marginalization), theistic dissenters are a priori considered irrational and extremist. As for the legal system, he claims, the shift away from objective natural law toward legal rights and interests has led to muddled and purely pragmatic judgments. For example, although abortion is legal, a mugger who caused a miscarriage was found guilty of murder in a 1994 California Supreme Court decision. Johnson argues that such decisions are not based on principle (such as the state's interest in protecting life) but, in this case, simply on the personal ``interest'' of the mother; since she did not choose to exercise her right of privacy by having an abortion, the fetus's killing was considered murder. Johnson's analysis is based on an in-depth study of the work of Stephen Hawking, Francis Crick, Stephen Jay Gould, and Richard Rorty, among others. He describes his own position as ``theistic realism,'' concluding with a call for all parties to engage fearlessly in rational dialogue and for American Christians to abandon their tendency to separate faith from reason. Well argued and astute, this critical work makes an exciting contribution to contemporary scientific and cultural debate.

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1995

ISBN: 0-8308-1610-0

Page Count: 238

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1995

Next book

THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS

AND OTHER ESSAYS

This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.

Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955

ISBN: 0679733736

Page Count: 228

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955

Next book

THE ART OF SOLITUDE

A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.

A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.

“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.

A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.

Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020

ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0

Page Count: 200

Publisher: Yale Univ.

Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019

Close Quickview