PLURALISM,LIBERALISM, AND THE ROLE OF OVERRIDING VALUES

While it is often thought that pluralism is best accommodated by a liberal state, John Kekes has recently argued that pluralism and liberalism involve inconsistent commitments. He maintains that liberalism is committed to the idea that one or more of the “liberal values” must override all other values, while pluralism is committed to the idea that there are no overriding values whatsoever. In this paper I challenge Kekes' position by arguing that ethical pluralism does not require an absence of overriding values, and that liberalism does not require that one or more of the liberal values must override all others.     

宗教多元性与认同性危机

现代末期的宗教及其未来在新千年降临之际 ,宗教正在经历某些彻底的变革 :首先一个变革就是世俗化过程[1] 对于各种传统宗教产生的巨大影响 ,这种世俗化以各种不同的形式从基督教开始 ,在今天和未来将依然这样进行下去 ,但它并不干预作为一个制度和公共因素的宗教的没落 ,更不必说作为一个私人现象的信仰的没落。我们正在经历的 ,毋宁说是伴随社会 文化的深刻变形而发生的作为私人领域的宗教信仰和作为制度因素的宗教的一个巨大变革和适应过程 (利翁 ,2 0 0 2 )。这种变革的两个主要因素是 ,大众传媒和消费社会的胜利以及全球化过程 (库尔…     

ISLAMIC MODERNITY AND THE CHALLENGES FOR SECULAR LIBERALISM

In his recent book Islam Evolving: Radicalism, Reformation, and the Uneasy Relationship with the Secular West, Taner Edis discusses Islamic responses to the modern world and how the West deals and should deal with them. He argues convincingly that the biggest threat to secular liberalism is not fundamentalism but an Islamic form of modernity. He attributes some of the latter's success to Western neoliberalism and to the failure of secular liberals to come up with persuasive arguments. He thus puts part of the blame on the West. However, although self‐criticism is an essential aspect of a well‐functioning democracy, we should not take it too far. Instead, there exist convincing reasons why a secular liberal society is strongly preferable to a religious conservative one.     

THE EGALITARIAN RELATIONSHIP IN FEMINIST THERAPY

Feminist therapy has revolutionized clinical practice and offered a model of empowerment for all therapy approaches. However, the long-assumed claim that feminist therapists are more likely to engage in power-sharing behaviors with their clients has not been supported by published quantitative research. In the current study, 42 female therapists who were asked whether or not they self-identified as feminist therapists completed measures assessing their use of feminist therapy behaviors (Feminist Therapy Behavior Checklist) and power-sharing behaviors (Therapy with Women Scale). One of each therapists' current female clients completed measures assessing her perceptions of both treatment collaboration (Working Alliance Inventory) and power-sharing behaviors (Client Therapy with Women Scale). As hypothesized, participants who identified as feminist therapists were more likely to report engaging in power-sharing behaviors when compared to participating therapists who did not. Furthermore, as hypothesized, clients of feminist therapists were more likely to report that their therapists engaged in power-sharing behaviors.     

TESTING THE LIMITS OF LIBERALISM: A REVERSE CONJECTURE

In this paper, I propose to look closely at certain crucial aspects of the logic of Rawls' argument in Political Liberalism and related subsequent writings. Rawls' argument builds on the notion of comprehensiveness, whereby a doctrine encompasses the full spectrum of the life of its adherents. In order to show the mutual conflict and irreconcilability of comprehensive doctrines, Rawls needs to emphasise the comprehensiveness of doctrines, as their irreconcilability to a large extent emanates from that comprehensiveness. On the other hand, in order to show the possibility and plausibility of the political liberal solution he needs to emphasise that most of these doctrines are reasonable: i.e., they are willing to cede a portion of their authority to political liberalism for the right reasons. Yet, if they are willing to cede a portion of their authority to a political conception they cannot be as comprehensive as we initially thought they were. All these elements highlight the tension in the argument itself. I suggest that many of these tensions can be removed by making Rawls' account more flexible. In this context I propose certain amendments to Rawls' account, which may overcome some of the tensions mentioned above.     

THE PLACE OF FAITH IN A WORLD OF FACT

Abstract. The relation of religion and science is presented in terms of the interrelationship of domains generated within a reflexive real world concept by status assignment. The domain of religion is articulated by the concepts of ultimacy, totality, and eternity, which are boundary conditions on all status assignments. The domain of science is a status assignment, that of determining the facts and constraints of the real world, and is articulated by the concepts of empiricism, objectivity, and order. The interrelationship of domains is illustrated by examining the concepts of order, disorder, entropy, evil, freedom, creation, and resurrection.     

CHRISTIAN ORTHODOXY AND RELIGIOUS PLURALISM

The paper argues that it can be demonstrated that the position of Jacques Dupuis, S.J., a pluralist, is compatible with that of the syllabus on religious pluralism produced by the Roman Catholic Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Dominius Iesus. This demonstration provides good reason to believe that at least one form of de jure pluralism, labeled “inclusivist pluralism”, is a theological theory compatible with orthodox Christian belief.     

JOHANNINE DUALISM AND CONTEMPORARY PLURALISM

The main thrust of this essay is an argument that (1) John's Gospel is not “dualistic” in the technical sense of the term but that it does operate with “oppositional dualities”; (2) far from being negating of pluralism as both a social fact and a political project, John's kind of oppositional dualities may in fact be the best way to preserve social pluralism and make it flourish; (3) two notable features of John's oppositional dualities are that (i) they are soft enough to allow surprisingly blurry boundaries between “inside” and “outside” and that (ii) they mandate a willingness to sacrifice one's own life on behalf of one's deadly enemies.