Michael
Oct 28th 2009, 01:18 PM
I just stumbled across this essay by Charles Taylor on Jurgen Habermas. As a general rule, I consider these particular fellows to be two of the most important thinkers of the 20th century.
Anyway, I haven't read the essay yet, but I'm posting it here because I definitely will and I most certainly will comment upon it. I'm just posting it here now so I don't forget and on the off-chance that someone else here might be interested.
Both of these famous philosophers are well known for their interest in the intersection between religion and society.
Jürgen Habermas is known in the world of analytic philosophy primarily as a moral and political philosopher. He has striven against a slide which has often seemed plausible and tempting for modern thinkers, that towards a certain relativism or subjectivism in morals. The difficulty of establishing firm ethical conclusions in the midst of vigorous debate among rival doctrines, particularly when these disputes are contrasted to those among natural scientists can all too easily push us to the conclusion that there is no fact of the matter here, that ethical doctrines are not a matter of knowledge, but only of emotional reaction or subjective projection, that the issues here are not cognitive.
Essay (http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/2009/10/19/philosopher-citizen/)
Anyway, I haven't read the essay yet, but I'm posting it here because I definitely will and I most certainly will comment upon it. I'm just posting it here now so I don't forget and on the off-chance that someone else here might be interested.
Both of these famous philosophers are well known for their interest in the intersection between religion and society.
Jürgen Habermas is known in the world of analytic philosophy primarily as a moral and political philosopher. He has striven against a slide which has often seemed plausible and tempting for modern thinkers, that towards a certain relativism or subjectivism in morals. The difficulty of establishing firm ethical conclusions in the midst of vigorous debate among rival doctrines, particularly when these disputes are contrasted to those among natural scientists can all too easily push us to the conclusion that there is no fact of the matter here, that ethical doctrines are not a matter of knowledge, but only of emotional reaction or subjective projection, that the issues here are not cognitive.
Essay (http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/2009/10/19/philosopher-citizen/)