Suchergebnisse

Religions do not contribute with any kind of relevant knowledge in processes of democratic decision making, and they do not hold any authority in a democracy. Religions have to be referred to the private sphere and requests of special attention and sensitivity towards religious citizens would potentially undermine the commonality of democracy. Furthermore, religious experiences, practices and traditions are defended as reservoirs of meaning and knowledge and sources of engagement in democratic public life, that secularists neglect. Democratic public life should open up for religious reasons and emotions as legitimate utterances in the processes of democratic decision making and acceptable signs and symbols in the public life as such. Adapted from the source document.

A review essay on books by (1) Jurgen Habermas, Zwischen Naturalismus und Religion: Philosophische Aufsatze ([Between Naturalism and Religion: Philosophical Treatises] Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2005); (2) Lucas Swaine, The Liberal Conscience: Politics and Principle in a World of Religious Pluralism (New York: Columbia U Press, 2006); & (3) Paul J. Weithman, Religion and the Obligations of Citizenship (Cambridge: Cambridge U Press, 2002/2006).

A review essay on books by (1) Aaron V. Garrett, Meaning in Spinoza's Method (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge U Press, 2003); & (2) Steven B. Smith, Spinoza's Book of Life: Freedom and Redemption in the Ethics (New Haven, CT: Yale U Press, 2003).