idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
idw - Informationsdienst
Wissenschaft
06.06.2006 - 06.06.2006 | Berlin-Tiergarten
Modern societies have to be secular. There are two models of this. Both involve some kind of separation of church and state. The state can't be officially linked to some religious confession; except in a vestigial and largely symbolic sense, as in England or Scandinavia. But secularism requires more than this. The pluralism of society requires that there be some kind of neutrality, or "principled distance", to use Rajeev Bhargava's term.
Secularism is in fact a complex requirement. We can single out goods, which we can class in the three categories of the French Revolutionary trinity of liberty, equality, and fraternity: (1) No-one must be forced in the domain of religion, or basic belief; (2) There must be equality between people of different faiths or basic belief; (3) All spiritual families must be heard and included in the ongoing process of determining the political identity of the society. Sometimes we have to balance these goods.
One kind of secularism claims to have resolved the question of how to realize these goals. It is claimed that one can determine them in the realm of timeless principle, and that no further input or negotiation is required to define them for our society now. The basis for these principles can be found in reason alone, or in some outlook which is itself free from religion, purely "laïque".
The problem with this is that there is no such set of timeless principles which can be determined, at least in the detail they must be for a given political system, by pure reason alone. Situations differ very much, and require different kinds of concrete realization of agreed general principles. Dictating the principles from some supposedly higher authority deprives certain spiritual families of a voice in this working out.
Charles Taylor is one of the leading political philosophers of our times. He is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at McGill University and Board of Trustees Professor of Law and Philosophy at North-western University. His numerous books include: Sources of the Self 1989; Varieties of Religion Today, 2002; Modern Social Imaginaries, 2004. At present, he is a Fellow at the Wissenschaftskol-leg zu Berlin.
WZB "Lectures on Democracy" are organized by John Keane and Wolfgang Merkel
Hinweise zur Teilnahme:
Please reply by June 1, 2006 to Karolina May-Chu: may-chu@wz-berlin.de
Termin:
06.06.2006 20:00 - 22:00
Veranstaltungsort:
Reichpietschufer 50, Raum A 300
10785 Berlin-Tiergarten
Berlin
Deutschland
Zielgruppe:
Journalisten, Wissenschaftler
Relevanz:
überregional
Sachgebiete:
Geschichte / Archäologie, Gesellschaft, Philosophie / Ethik, Politik, Recht, Religion
Arten:
Eintrag:
09.05.2006
Absender:
Dr. Paul Stoop
Abteilung:
Abteilung Kommunikation
Veranstaltung ist kostenlos:
ja
Textsprache:
Englisch
URL dieser Veranstaltung: http://idw-online.de/de/event17102
Sie können Suchbegriffe mit und, oder und / oder nicht verknüpfen, z. B. Philo nicht logie.
Verknüpfungen können Sie mit Klammern voneinander trennen, z. B. (Philo nicht logie) oder (Psycho und logie).
Zusammenhängende Worte werden als Wortgruppe gesucht, wenn Sie sie in Anführungsstriche setzen, z. B. „Bundesrepublik Deutschland“.
Die Erweiterte Suche können Sie auch nutzen, ohne Suchbegriffe einzugeben. Sie orientiert sich dann an den Kriterien, die Sie ausgewählt haben (z. B. nach dem Land oder dem Sachgebiet).
Haben Sie in einer Kategorie kein Kriterium ausgewählt, wird die gesamte Kategorie durchsucht (z.B. alle Sachgebiete oder alle Länder).
