Rage and reason

When I was in law school I knew nothing about Richard Posner, but it seemed obvious from the sneering remarks of my professors that what he had to say was very important and probably well-founded, at least within the world of late-20th-century American legal scholarship. I still know very little about Posner, but so far … More ...

Toleration and truth

A poster over at Right Reason has put together an argument for a classical liberal conception of tolerance that has apparently appealed to various independent thinkers alarmed by 20th century fanaticisms. It’s more sober than the usual praise of tolerance found today but still an attempt to get something—a reliable guide for conduct—out of nothing—a … More ...

Radical theology as the essence of the mainstream

I was struck by a quotation from an essay by feminist theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether mentioned in an article about a Catholic-connected conference in which she’ll be taking part:

“All racist, sexist, classist, and anthropocentric assumptions of the superiority of whites over blacks, males over females, managers over workers, humans over animals and plants must

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Modernity as the lunacy of pedants

La Rochefoucauld says that “he who lives without folly is not so wise as he thinks.” The point applies more strongly as the effort becomes more comprehensive, so that a whole society that tries to live perfectly rationally will go stark staring mad. That is increasingly the case with our own society:

  • Scientism, the
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