Religiosity and Public Reason: The Case of Direct Action Animal Rights Advocacy

Recent social science research indicates that animal rights philosophy plays the functional role of a religion in the lives of the most committed animal rights advocates. In this paper, I apply the functional religion thesis to the recent debate over the place of direct action animal rights advocacy in democratic theory. I outline the usefulness of the functional religion thesis and explain its implications for theorists that call for deliberative theories to be more inclusive of coercive forms of activism.     

Reason and Pareto‐Optimization

This paper takes up David Gauthier's most recent (2013) defense of the rationality of cooperation in prisoner's dilemmas. In that defense, Gauthier argues for a Pareto‐optimizing theory of rational choice. According to Gauthier, rational action should sometimes aim at Pareto‐optimization, and cooperation in prisoner's dilemmas is rational because it is Pareto‐optimizing. I argue that Pareto‐optimization cannot justify cooperation in the prisoner's dilemma in a manner that is also consistent with Gauthier's other desiderata. Either: (1) the rationality of cooperation must derive from what is beneficial for the group rather than what is beneficial for the individual, leaving the individual qua individual without any reason to cooperate, or (2) Gauthier cannot explain why defecting in prisoner's dilemmas is not also rational.     

Knowledge and Action,Reason and Habit,in Jewish and Muslim Philosophies of Education

Jewish and Muslim philosophers, alike, regarded the formation of proper habits to be the key to effective education. They also considered rational acceptance of religious obligation to be mandatory for successful observance. This essay examines the relationship between these two dimensions of religious education: knowledge and reason on the one hand, and habit and action on the other hand, in the philosophical and pedagogical works of Abu Hāmid al-Ghazāli (1058–1111,) Moses Maimonides (1135–1204), and the anonymous Sefer Ha-Hinnukh (13th century).     

信仰理性·认知理性·反思理性--理性"天然合法性"的根据何在

人类文明的发展,经过了"信仰理性"、"认知理性"的支配阶段后,将进入一个"人性自主一反思理性"的时代.在已往的历史中,理性并没有真正握有自主权,它更多地充当了一种工具化的角色.信仰理性是"本性在外"的理解方式,理智理性是"本性对外"的理解方式,二者均未达到人性的自主.反思理性作为理性的自我反省,是向生成自身的那个人性根基的回归.理性的"天然合法性"的根据即在理性自身.反思理性使"理性自洁"的功能得以发挥,它一定能够解决理性自身造成的问题."反思理性"将成为新世纪人类文明的主导理性.     

Theology and Institutions — A Partisan British Perspective

Books reviewed in this article:
Willi Braun and Russell T. McCutcheon, (eds.) Guide to the Study of Religion
J'annine Jobling and Ian Markham, (eds) Theological Liberalism, Creative and Critical     

The Linguistic Territoriality Principle — A Critique

In this essay, I develop a critique of the linguistic territoriality principle, which states that, for reasons related to the value of language identity, language groups should be territorially accommodated. While I acknowledge the desirability of implementing a linguistic territoriality principle in some specific cases, I claim that this principle is in general inappropriate for the ‘post‐Westphalian’ linguistic world in which we live. I identify, analyze and reject two distinct justifications for the linguistic territoriality principle: the Linguistic Context justification and the Language Survival justification. Finally, I argue for different means of giving political recognition to the fact that most people value their language as an importance source of identity. This alternative theory sets out to officially recognize multiple languages in a given territory.