December 2004
-
The Religion of Civil Liberties
I said in an earlier post that “religion” should be confined to the theistic religions. That is sensible when the issue is the role of faith-based morality in public policy. But in other contexts a broader sense of the word, to denote the embrace of a system of thought that is not responsive to scientific…
-
A Note on Free Will
One of yesterday’s comments asked me whether I believed in free will. I think of free will as being epiphenomenal. When we engage in deliberation, we are examining the pros and cons of alternative courses of action. When we complete our deliberation, either the pros or the cons will be weightier, and we go with…
-
Response to Comments on Citing Foreign Courts
Lawrence v. Texas, invaliding state sodomy laws, was one of the decisions in which the U.S. Supreme Court cited a foreign case, and a comment asks whether I think the decision was wrong. I think it would be possible to write a respectable, narrow opinion invalidating those laws, which have come to seem ridiculous, though…
-
Citing Foreign Courts
The U.S. Supreme Court is increasingly citing decisions by foreign courts. I don’t like the practice, for a variety of reasons that I’ll sketch briefly. But I must first make clear that I don’t object to all such citations. For example, sometimes foreign law supplies the rule of decision for a case in an American…
-
Response to Comments
I cannot possibly do justice to these comments. Let me make just a few points in response to some of them, trying to group them thematically: 1. I think it important, at least for purposes of the subject of my blog on faith-based morality, to confine "religion" to theism. There are important nontheistic religions, such…
-
Faith-Based Morality and Public Policy
Brian said I’m an atheist, but the word has two distinct meanings. The first is a person who does not have a sense that there is a God—who, in short, is not a religious person. The second is a person who adheres to the doctrine that there is no God. That is a metaphysical proposition…
-
Testing
I thank Brian for his gracious introduction. I will begin blogging shortly after midnight, and–since Brian called me an atheist–my first subject will be faith-based morality as a basis of law. I am posting this unnecessary preface merely to test whether I can master the basic technical requirements for posting on Brian’s blog.
-
A few introductory remarks on Posner’s Jurisprudence
Judge Richard Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, who also continues to teach at the University of Chicago Law School, will be guest-blogging here starting Monday, December 27 through next Saturday (January 1) or Sunday (January 2). Richard Posner is, of course, best-known for his seminal work establishing economic analysis…
-
Pedigree of Recent Tenure-Track Hires at Top PhD Programs in Philosophy
Dr. Michael Pelczar from the Department of Philosophy at the National University of Singapore writes: The thread in your site on publication and hiring prompted me to do some informal fact finding. I thought that there might be some interest in the results. I visited the websites of the top 50 U.S. philosophy programs as…
-
A Story for Christmas Eve
I expect they won’t be telling this one at W’s house this evening.
-
George Bush’s Christmas Present for College Students
Details here: College students in virtually every state will be required to shoulder more of the cost of their education under new federal rules that govern most of the nation’s financial aid. Because of the changes, which take effect next fall and are expected to save the government $300 million in the 2005-6 academic year,…
-
The Left2Right Blog Phenomenon
It has been a rather remarkable 2 1/2 weeks for the new Left2Right blog featuring leading moral and political philosophers. With links from a number of well-trafficked blog sites (including the right-wing National Review blog!), the site appears to be averaging close to 4,000 hits per day (a bit more than this blog, for example,…
-
Shame on National Geographic, Indeed!
Pharyngula has the story. Do cancel your subscription.
-
Politically Correct and Non-Legally Binding Holiday Wishes
Via reader Ian Best comes this all-purpose set of seasons greetings, written by Professor Gary Potter (Music, Indiana-Bloomington): From me ("the wishor") to you ("the wishee"): Please accept without obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for anenvironmentally conscious, socially responsible, politically correct, lowstress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solsticeholiday, practised within the…
-
Reminder: Richard Posner will be guest blogging here next week
Just a reminder that starting on Monday (December 27) and running through the remainder of next week (until Sunday, January 2), my friend, Richard Posner, the great jurist and wide-ranging, eclectic, and always provocative legal scholar, will be posting here on jurisprudential and related matters (as distinct from the kinds of policy issues he and…
Andrei Rodin is circulating a letter demanding the liberation of Svetlana Mesyats: https://philomatica.org/2026/05/open-letter-in-support-of-svetlana-messiats/. The prosecution has demanded a sentence of…