Breaking The Spell (Dennett Book)
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Breaking The Spell (Dennett Book)
''Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon'' is a 2006 book by American philosopher and cognitive scientist Daniel Dennett, in which the author argues that religion is in need of scientific analysis so that its nature and future may be better understood. The "spell" that requires "breaking" is not religious belief itself but the belief that it is off-limits to or beyond scientific inquiry. Synopsis The book is divided into three parts. Dennett's working definition of religions is: "social systems whose participants avow belief in a supernatural agent or agents whose approval is to be sought". He notes that this definition is "a place to start, not something carved in stone". Part I discusses the motivation and justification for the entire project: ''Can'' science study religion? ''Should'' science study religion? Dennett addresses the proposal by Stephen Jay Gould that science and religion represent non-overlapping magisteria (NOMA); science dealing with facts whil ...
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Daniel C
The Wake are a British post-punk, synth-pop and later indie pop band, formed in Glasgow in 1981 by Gerard "Caesar" McInulty (formerly of Altered Images), Steven Allen (drums) and Joe Donnelly (bass), the latter replaced by Bobby Gillespie. Steven's sister Carolyn Allen also joined on keyboards, and remained in the band thereafter. Gillespie left the band in 1983, replaced by Martin Cunning and then by Alexander 'Mac' Macpherson. History The Wake released their first single on their own Scan 45 label, coupling together "On Our Honeymoon" and "Give Up". This single eventually caught the attention of New Order (band), New Order manager Rob Gretton, who helped the band sign to Factory Records in 1982 and record an LP (''Harmony (The Wake album), Harmony'') at Strawberry Studios in Stockport. This was followed by a number of singles on Factory and its Belgian sister label Factory Benelux. In 1983, The Wake toured with New Order (band), New Order, and thus received critical attention ...
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Meaning Of Life
The meaning of life is the concept of an individual's life, or existence in general, having an intrinsic value (ethics), inherent significance or a Meaning (philosophy), philosophical point. There is no consensus on the specifics of such a concept or whether the concept itself even exists in any Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), objective sense. Thinking and discourse on the topic is sought in the English language through questions such as—but not limited to—"What is the meaning of life?", "What is the purpose of existence?", and "Why are Human, we World, here?". There have been many proposed answers to these questions from many different cultural and ideological backgrounds. The search for life's meaning has produced much philosophical, scientific, theological, and metaphysics, metaphysical speculation throughout history. Different people and cultures believe different things for the answer to this question. Opinions vary on the usefulness of using time and Resource, ...
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Karlyn Bowman
Karlyn H. Bowman, formerly known as Karlyn H. Keene, is a politically conservative American editor and public opinion analyst. She is currently a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. She was the managing editor of ''Public Opinion'' from 1979 to 1990 and the founding editor of ''The American Enterprise ''The American Enterprise'' (''TAE'') was a public policy magazine published by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington, D.C. Its editorial stance was politically conservative, generally advocating free-market economics and a neo ...'' from 1990 to 1995. Bowman is the author of several AEI Studies in Public Opinion. References External links Bowman's profile at AEI.org* American Enterprise Institute Living people Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-editor-stub ...
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Edward Feser
Edward Charles Feser (; born April 16, 1968) is an American Catholic philosopher. He is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Pasadena City College in Pasadena, California. Education Feser holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of California at Santa Barbara, an M.A. in religion from the Claremont Graduate School, and a B.A. in philosophy and religious studies from the California State University at Fullerton. His thesis is titled ''Russell, Hayek, and the Mind-Body Problem''. He graduated from Crespi High School in California. Career Feser is an associate professor of philosophy at Pasadena City College and has been a visiting assistant professor of philosophy at Loyola Marymount University and a visiting scholar at Bowling Green State University's Social Philosophy and Policy Center. Called by ''National Review'' "one of the best contemporary writers on philosophy," Feser is the author of ''On Nozick'', ''Philosophy of Mind'', ''Locke'', ''The Last Superstition: ...
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The New Atlantis (journal)
''The New Atlantis'' is a journal founded by the social conservative advocacy group the Ethics and Public Policy Center, now published by the Center for the Study of Technology and Society. It covers topics about the social, ethical, political, and policy dimensions of modern science and technology. The journal is editorially reviewed but is not peer-reviewed on scientific topics. It is edited by Ari Schulman, having previously been edited by co-founders Eric Cohen and Adam Keiper. The journal's name is taken from Francis Bacon's utopian novella ''New Atlantis'', which the journal's editors describe as a "fable of a society living with the benefits and challenges of advanced science and technology". An editorial in the inaugural issue states that the aim of the journal is "to help us avoid the extremes of euphoria and despair that new technologies too often arouse; and to help us judge when mobilizing our technological prowess is sensible or necessary, and when the preservation o ...
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Duquesne University
Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit ( ; also known as Duquesne University or Duquesne) is a Private university, private Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded by members of the Holy Ghost Fathers, Congregation of the Holy Spirit, Duquesne first opened as the Pittsburgh Catholic College of the Holy Ghost in October 1878 with an enrollment of 40 students and a faculty of six. In 1911, the college became the first Catholic university-level institution in Pennsylvania. It is named for an 18th-century governor of New France, Michel-Ange Duquesne de Menneville. Duquesne has since expanded to over 9,300 graduate and undergraduate students within a self-contained hilltop campus in Pittsburgh's Bluff (Pittsburgh), Bluff neighborhood. The school maintains an associate campus in Rome and encompasses ten schools of study. The university hosts international students from more than 80 countries although most students—ab ...
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Charles T
Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was "free man". The Old English descendant of this word was '' Ċearl'' or ''Ċeorl'', as the name of King Cearl of Mercia, that disappeared after the Norman conquest of England. The name was notably borne by Charlemagne (Charles the Great), and was at the time Latinized as ''Karolus'' (as in ''Vita Karoli Magni''), later also as '' Carolus''. Etymology The name's etymology is a Common Germanic noun ''*karilaz'' meaning "free man", which survives in English as churl (James (wikt:Appendix:Proto-Indo-European/ǵerh₂-">ĝer-, where the ĝ is a palatal consonant, meaning "to rub; to be old; grain." An old man has been worn away and is now grey with age. In some Slavic languages, the name ''Drago (given name), Drago'' (and variants: ''Dragom ...
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Scientism
Scientism is the belief that science and the scientific method are the best or only way to render truth about the world and reality. While the term was defined originally to mean "methods and attitudes typical of or attributed to natural scientists", some scholars, as well as political and religious leaders, have also adopted it as a pejorative term with the meaning "an exaggerated trust in the efficacy of the methods of natural science applied to all areas of investigation (as in philosophy, the social sciences, and the humanities)". Overview Francis Bacon has been viewed by some scholars as an early proponent of scientism, but this is a modern assertion as Bacon was a devout Anglican, writing in his Essays, "a little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion." With respect to the philosophy of science, the term ''scientism'' frequently implies a critique of the more extreme expressions of logical positivism and ha ...
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Jewish Review Of Books
The ''Jewish Review of Books'' is a quarterly magazine with articles on literature, culture and current affairs from a Jewish perspective. It is published in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. The magazine was launched in 2010 with an editorial board that included Michael Walzer and Ruth Wisse, Shlomo Avineri, Ruth Gavison, and other prominent Jewish thinkers.Smith, Jordan Michael"A Jewish Journal of Ideas Is Born" ''The Forward'', February 10, 2010 (issue of February 19, 2010). The editor is Abraham Socher. The initial press run was 30,000 copies. According to '' The Jewish Week'', the JRB is "unabashedly" modeled after the venerable ''New York Review of Books''. Harvey Pekar and Tara Seibel collaborated on comic strips for the first two issues of the magazine. The magazine was initially funded by the Tikvah Fund, founded by Zalman Bernstein. In 2022, the publication separated from the Tikvah Fund and is now run independently under the non-profit Jewish Review of Books Foundation, c ...
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Leon Wieseltier
Leon Wieseltier ( ; born June 14, 1952) is an American critic and magazine editor. From 1983 to 2014, he was the literary editor of ''The New Republic''. He was a contributing editor and critic at ''The Atlantic'' until 2017, when the magazine fired him following allegations and an admission by Wieseltier of multiple instances of sexual harassment. In 2020, he became the editor of ''Liberties'', a quarterly literary review. Early life and education Wieseltier was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Stella (Backenroth) and Mark Wieseltier, who were Holocaust survivors from Poland. He attended the Yeshiva of Flatbush, Columbia University, Oxford University, and Harvard University. He was a member of the Harvard Society of Fellows (1979–82). Career During his tenure as literary editor of ''The New Republic'', Wieseltier played a central role in editing its "back of the book" or literary, cultural, and arts pages. The magazine's owner, Marty Peretz, discovered Wieseltier, th ...
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George Johnson (writer)
George Johnson (born January 20, 1952) is an American journalist and science writer. Work Johnson is the author of nine books, including ''The Cancer Chronicles'' (2013), ''The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments'' (2008) and ''Strange Beauty: Murray Gell-Mann and the Revolution in 20th-Century Physics'' (1999), and writes for a number of publications, including ''The New York Times''. He is a two-time winner of the science journalism award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His books have been short-listed three times for the Royal Society science book prize. His column, "Raw Data", appeared in ''The New York Times''. Johnson is one of the co-hosts (with science writer John Horgan) of "Science Faction", a weekly discussion on the website Bloggingheads.tv, related to topics in science. Several prominent scientists, philosophers, and bloggers have been interviewed for the site. Awards His ninth book ''The Cancer Chronicles: Unlocking Medicine's Deepest ...
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The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust Limited. The trust was created in 1936 to "secure the financial and editorial independence of ''The Guardian'' in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of ''The Guardian'' free from commercial or political interference". The trust was converted into a limited company in 2008, with a constitution written so as to maintain for ''The Guardian'' the same protections as were built into the structure of the Scott Trust by its creators. Profits are reinvested in its journalism rather than distributed to owners or shareholders. It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. The editor-in-chief Katharine Viner succeeded Alan Rusbridger in 2015. S ...
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