About Rationally Speaking


Rationally Speaking is a blog maintained by Prof. Massimo Pigliucci, a philosopher at the City University of New York. The blog reflects the Enlightenment figure Marquis de Condorcet's idea of what a public intellectual (yes, we know, that's such a bad word) ought to be: someone who devotes himself to "the tracking down of prejudices in the hiding places where priests, the schools, the government, and all long-established institutions had gathered and protected them." You're welcome. Please notice that the contents of this blog can be reprinted under the standard Creative Commons license.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Michael’s Picks

By Michael De Dora
* Can we choose what we believe? Julian Baggini argues that the more we contemplate our beliefs, the more we can say to have actually chosen them.
* InsideCatholic details for its readers five ways to talk to the Left about same-sex marriage.
* The government and government officials ought to keep their distance from the Ground Zero Islamic cultural center controversy, says Ron Lindsay.
* A federal judge has struck down a Missouri law aimed at trying to keep a religious group from protesting at funerals for dead U.S. soldiers.
* A group of young Moroccans is fighting for the right to not observe Ramadan.
* Derek Araujo provides quality analysis of the recent Perry v. Schwarzenegger case, which ended in the overturning of Prop 8.
* Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) writes about why he was so angry on the House floor recently.
* Britain is now the most irreligious country on Earth. Johann Hari helps us with the question, “Why?”
* Sam Harris has some of his “The Moral Landscape” book tour dates up on his Web site. Check it out and see if he’ll be speaking near you.
Posted by at 9:00 PM

2 comments:

  1. "The capacity to make free choices is not something we either have entirely or not at all. Rather, choices become freer the more they are the result of our own capacity to reflect on and assess facts and arguments." - Julian Baggini

    Didn't Spinoza have an idea of freedom that can be described as an awareness and understanding of one's determined situation? How does Baggini's idea differ from Spinoza's?

    ReplyDelete

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