Response to Gert on Practical Reason

This is a response to Joshua Gert’s criticisms of my book Reasons from Within and defense of his own contrasting position.     

Response to James E. McClellan

Studies in Philosophy and Education -     

Rationality, Reason and the History of Thought

Philosophers over the course of the last century, including Edmund Husserl, Chaim Perelman, and Jacques Derrida, have attempted to unravel the tangled relationship between the rational and the reasonable in order to understand how the history of thought progresses. Critical political theorists, including Michel Foucault and Ernesto Laclau have also investigated this issue from a range of perspectives, especially as it relates to the relationship between ideational limits and their transgression and the universal and the particular. This essay compares these perspectives to locate the rational dimensions of the reasonable, and to relate that “meta-reason” to the irrational and unreasonable aspects of identity formation and the unfolding of world history.     

The morality of faith in Martin Buber and William James

Some philosophers have become atheists because of “intellectual probity.” Martin Buber relates two occasions during which he advocated his view of the term “God” and rejected alternative perspectives. He never justified the basis for either his advocacy or his rejection, yet both play an important role in all his writing, especially his specific type of Zionism. Using what has been called the mere theism of William James’ “The Will to Believe” and the criteria for faith that James advances in that essay illuminates both Buber’s general view of the divine and more particularly his Zionism. Once Buber, no less than James, is understood as a mere theist the basis of what he accepts and what he rejects as true religion becomes clearer. Buber’s theism meets James’ requirement of being a live, forced, momentous option and his Zionism also strives to meet those standards.     

Genes, Brains and Gendered Behavior: Rethinking Power and Politics in Response to Condit, Liesen, and Vandermassen

In response to the commentaries by Condit, Liesen, and Vandermassen, I argue that we lack a more nuanced understanding of women’s political behavior (and therefore politics in general) because of the sustained barrier between the social and natural sciences, historical missteps, researcher bias, and perhaps an inclination to ask the wrong questions. By taking a Darwinian feminist approach to exploring gendered political behavior, and with the tools of behavior genetics and cognitive neuroscience, we can better understand the psychological and behavioral repertoires of men and women as well as predict political outcomes.     

Metaphysics, History, And Rational Justification A MacIntyrean Response to Franklin Gamwell's Critique

This article addresses Franklin Gamwell's critique of Alasdair MacIntyre's account of the nature of rational justification. I argue that MacIntyreans have good reasons to take seriously Gamwell's critique, and thus to reformulate MacIntyre's position to make clear that that position does not rest on a denial of all a priori claims. The author outlines such a reformulation, drawing heavily on MacIntyre's account (in his 1990 Aquinas Lecture) of the place of a priori claims within the development of rational traditions of inquiry. When thus rethought, MacIntyre's position grounds a twofold response to Gamwell's critique.     

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.     

Education,Gender, and Ethnicity in Religious and Non-religious Populations in the United States: A Response to James Lewis

This comment extends the analysis proposed by James Lewis in his research note in the May 2015 issue of the Journal of Contemporary Religion. Looking at data from the United States, the normalization of non-religiosity is explored. It is concluded that, while those identifying as atheist or agnostic are clearly of higher education and income levels, most of the generic ‘nones’, who are simply unaffiliated but may hold religious beliefs, are closer to the mainstream.     

Identity Politics and Dialectical Reason: Beyond an Epistemology of Provenance

Identity politics is important within feminism. However, it often presupposes an overly subjectivist theory of knowledge that I term an epistemology of provenance. I explore some works of feminist standpoint theory that begin to address the difficulties of such an epistemology. I then bring Sartre's account of knowledge in the Critique of Dialectical Reason to bear on these difficulties, arguing that his work offers tools for addressing them more adequately.