MD

Jacques Lyotard, a prominent postmodernist, has this to say about the status of knowledge in modernity:

“Our working hypothesis is that the status of knowledge is altered as societies enter what is known as the postindustrial age and cultures enter what is known as the postmodern age. This transition has been under way since at … More ...

The issue is secularization. The term has many definitions and contours, and many have offered various descriptions and explanations.

Steven Weinberg is a Nobel particle physicist, working presently at the University of Texas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Weinberg

Weinberg recently published a piece in the Times Literary Supplement in which he claims 1. a loss of religious “certitude” in … More ...

Tufts materialist philosopher Daniel Dennett wrote a book entitled “Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon.”

David Hart reviewed the book in the January issue of First Things, “Daniel Dennett Hunts the Snark.”

http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=5428

The thesis of Dennett’s book is that the “phenomenon of religion” arose as the result of natural evolutionary biology, and … More ...

Arthur Schlesinger, a fine embodiment of modern liberal stasis, died last week. Schlesinger, along with JK Galbraith, represented that satisfied liberalism that died an unnoticed death sometime in the late 60’s or early 70’s. Figures like Schlesinger and Galbraith—and the brand of liberalism they represented—became instantly irrelevant during that time, although they personally never caught … More ...

We’re all familiar with Daniel Dennett and Richard Dawkins, and their staunchly anti-religious views.

How about Sam Harris, author of best-sellers “The End of Faith” and “Letter to a Christian Nation”? You may have heard of him from newspapers or cable TV coverage.

Dawkins says that Harris’s book “The End of Faith” should replace Gideon’s … More ...

Mr. Kalb referred, in his post on Weaver, to nominalism and its impact on Western intellectual history and the Western worldview. In this connection, I ran across the transcription of a lecture by Tillich—in a series of lectures on the history of Christian thought—that included a layman’s introduction to nominalism and its historic impact. Because … More ...

I take this excerpt from Hugh Hewitt’s site, summarizing a thesis of James Caesar of the University of Virginia that the Left seeks to implement an ideology of “non-foundationalism.” I think Caesar is superficially correct and substantively wrong.

“The left in this country has adopted “non-foundationalism,” a belief that “a new kind of society, free … More ...

I’ve mentioned that IMHO, modernity, as a matter of principle, does not value human life.

“Human life,” within modernity, is just another fact, and as such is treated like any other fact: with neutrality and devoid of any intrinsic value.

Then, I ran across this quote from Trotsky, a principled modernist if there ever was … More ...

William MacClain maintains an Eric Voegelin study page, and I found the following at his site, which summarizes Voegelin’s comparisons of classical understanding of human nature and modern/liberal understandings. I quote from his page:

“A reflection on the purposes and prospects of classical studies.

The original definition as “the study of man’s nature as it … More ...

Mr. Kalb has suggested, that in the liberal understanding of the world, “rationality” determines the way in which one must think about things in a liberal society. “Rationality” therefore becomes a criterion for both the mode of discourse and the content of discourse within a liberal society.

No objective criteria exist to determine what “rationality” … More ...