A philosophically astute challenge to the rational supremacy of science over its spiritual rivals.
A nonfiction book makes a pragmatic case for the rational viability of a spiritual belief in a higher power.
Taylor observes that “religion has been declining, secularism has been surging,” especially among the educated classes that increasingly take their cues from the scientific community. Some in the religious community have contributed to this fate by refusing to cast their beliefs in the language of rational analysis and by often insisting on doctrinal views that are incoherent or contradictory. But the author also bemoans atheists’ tendency to adopt a different dogmatism, one no less close-minded, that refuses to acknowledge the limitations of the scientific worldview and the obvious attractions of a spiritual one, simplistically reducing religion to “superstitious mumbo-jumbo nonsense.” According to Taylor, there are opposing views regarding science and religion. He defends the position that “science and religion are potentially in conflict.” As a theoretical concern, the issue remains inconclusive. But it’s a different matter when converted into a practical issue since the goal in that situation is to make a concrete decision about one’s own good. And the spiritual life is attractive on this level—it can inspire hope and peace, provide an intelligible horizon for the search for meaning, and become a springboard to happiness and emotional health: “Spirituality is not the domain of the so-called unintelligent, superstitious, uneducated, and so forth. I sincerely hope that you have come to recognize the inherent advantages in living spiritually, but more importantly than that, I hope you choose to live a life that contributes to your own self-actualization.” Taylor’s treatment of the issue is not original—the emphasis on faith as a practical decision has a pedigree that dates back at least to the early 17th century. In addition, he tends to reduce faith to its quotidian benefits—at one point, he mentions studies that claim it helps you avoid junk food and “puts a smile on your face,” hardly the stuff of Kierkegaard. Nevertheless, he makes a compelling case that the scientific worldview—one that sees humans as “meat machines”—is inconsistent with people’s experiences of themselves and is not nearly as rationally superior as it is so often presented. This alone makes the author’s compact consideration a worthwhile read.
A philosophically astute challenge to the rational supremacy of science over its spiritual rivals.Pub Date: April 1, 2023
ISBN: 978-1803413013
Page Count: 184
Publisher: O-Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An incisive, urgently relevant analysis of—and call to action on—America’s foundational ideal.
An examination of how the U.S. can revitalize its commitment to freedom.
In this ambitious study, Snyder, author of On Tyranny, The Road to Unfreedom, and other books, explores how American freedom might be reconceived not simply in negative terms—as freedom from coercion, especially by the state—but positive ones: the freedom to develop our human potential within sustaining communal structures. The author blends extensive personal reflections on his own evolving understanding of liberty with definitions of the concept by a range of philosophers, historians, politicians, and social activists. Americans, he explains, often wrongly assume that freedom simply means the removal of some barrier: “An individual is free, we think, when the government is out of the way. Negative freedom is our common sense.” In his careful and impassioned description of the profound implications of this conceptual limitation, Snyder provides a compelling account of the circumstances necessary for the realization of positive freedom, along with a set of detailed recommendations for specific sociopolitical reforms and policy initiatives. “We have to see freedom as positive, as beginning from virtues, as shared among people, and as built into institutions,” he writes. The author argues that it’s absurd to think of government as the enemy of freedom; instead, we ought to reimagine how a strong government might focus on creating the appropriate conditions for human flourishing and genuine liberty. Another essential and overlooked element of freedom is the fostering of a culture of solidarity, in which an awareness of and concern for the disadvantaged becomes a guiding virtue. Particularly striking and persuasive are the sections devoted to eviscerating the false promises of libertarianism, exposing the brutal injustices of the nation’s penitentiaries, and documenting the wide-ranging pathologies that flow from a tax system favoring the ultrawealthy.
An incisive, urgently relevant analysis of—and call to action on—America’s foundational ideal.Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2024
ISBN: 9780593728727
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: June 25, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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