Ronald Aronson: Living Without God - Part 6/9

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In Living without God, Aronson picks up where the writers---Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens---he named "The New Atheists" (in Bookforum) leave off, turning to face the need for a coherent and contemporary secular philosophy that will answer life's vital questions.

As Aronson argues, living without God means turning toward something. Grounded in the sense that we are dependent and interconnected beings, rooted in nature, history and society, Living without God explores contemporary answers to Immanuel Kant's three great questions: What can I know? What ought I to do? What can I hope?

Aronson stresses how much knowledge humans have accumulated, verified, confirmed, and implemented: dozens, hundreds, thousands of things that are vital for human understanding and well-being. Today so much that was once cloaked in darkness is known, and so much that is really essential to our lives is knowable. We have developed methods of analysis, synthesis, and reasoning that can be taught and learned. All of this is now part of what John Dewey called the "social consciousness of the race" and it belongs to all of us, waiting to be claimed and used. We sell ourselves short to pretend otherwise.

Ronald Aronson is author or editor of nine books, including Jean-Paul Sartre­ Philosophy in the World and Camus and Sartre: Story of a Friendshipand the Quarrel that Ended It. Distinguished Professor of the History of Ideas at Wayne State University, he has lectured widely, including at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and other South African universities.

Recent article on his new book in USA Today:

Don't count us out: Nation of believers must not marginalize ­ or worse undercount ­ secularists, an invisible minority.
By Ronald Aronson

http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2008/10/dont-count-us-o.html

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