I’m pleased to say that my page of links to Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy has been quite considerably extended, and now includes more pre-Socratics, more Plato and Aristotle, and gives a kind of edited chronology up to and including (St) Augustine of Hippo. I hope you enjoy reading (some of) the works therein.
Interesting discussion between Peter Singer and Richard Dawkins about the extent to which we should apply morality to non-human animals.
There’s an excellent, brief article here by Tim Dunn, a philosophy PhD student writing for the ABC network in Australia, explaining why morality (1) doesn’t require religious belief and (2) is strengthened by the absence of dogmatism. It therefore partly answers my question to the “pro” team in the debate “would we be better off without religion?” below (I hope to find time to give a fuller personal response to that debate over the weekend). It is also a good reply to Ivan Karamazov in The Brothers Karamazov, and to Alyosha’s mysticism in that novel as well; and it begins with the well-known summation of Ivan K’s contention that, without God, anything is permitted. A fine morning read, in my view!
Postscript
Tim Dunn keeps an interesting blog here, called “Ockham’s Beard” (well, that made me smile) and subtitled “philosophical adventures in a complex world.”
There’s a provocative (and quite lengthy) debate here on whether we (collectively) would be better off without religion. I will post my own thoughts on this debate and the topic in general soon, though a couple of things immediately came to mind: if, as AC Grayling alleges in the debate (and as the available evidence suggests), people are good despite their religious ideas, could we not also say that, at a similar general level of abstraction, people are evil despite their religions as well?
I should also like to know how the “con” side would answer Dawkins’ challenge that they are being patronising by apparently asserting both that there really is no God and also that belief in God is a key means of promoting moral action. Another great problem for the “cons” is this: if there is no God, then surely, as the truth is that there is no God, then we would of course be better off without religion, as it presents a lie (whether a lie to believe in or just to follow as per one’s religious traditions).
A lovely diagram you are free to interpret as you will (be careful, though – one of the data sources for this infogram says the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the volcano is between 150,000 and 300,000 tons per day, which is quite a huge difference).
Art from informationisbeautiful.net.
