Essays in the Philosophy of Humanism Published on behalf of the American Humanist Association and The Institute for Humanist Studies Humanism v22i2.indb 1 12/04/2015 23:36:15 Essays in the Philosophy of Humanism Editor John R. Shook, American Humanist Association Consulting Editor Anthony Pinn, Rice University, USA Editorial Board Louise Antony, University of Massachusetts, USA; Arthur Caplan, New York University, USA; Patricia Churchland, University of California, USA; Franz de Waal, Emory University, USA; Peter Derkx, University of Humanistics, Netherlands; Greg Epstein, Harvard University, USA; Owen Flanagan, Duke University, USA; James Giordano, Georgetown University, USA; Rebecca Goldstein, USA; Anthony Clifford Grayling, New College of the Humanities, United Kingdom; Susan Hansen, University of Pittsburgh, USA; Jennifer Michael Hecht, USA; Marian Hillar, Houston Humanists, USA; Sikivu Hutchinson, Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations, USA; Philip Kitcher, Columbia University, USA; Stephen Law, University of London, United Kingdom; Cathy Legg, University of Waikato, New Zealand; Jonathan Moreno, University of Pennsylvania, USA; Stephen Pinker, Harvard University, USA; Charlene Haddock Seigfried, Purdue University, USA; Michael Shermer, The Skeptics Society, USA; Alistair J. Sinclair, Centre for Dualist Studies, United Kingdom; Stan van Hooft, Deakin University, Australia; Judy Walker, USA; Sharon Welch, Meadville Theological Seminary, USA Essays in the Philosophy of Humanism publishes scholarly papers concerning philosophical, historical, or interdisciplinary aspects of humanism, or that deal with the application of humanist principles to problems of everyday life. EPH encourages the exploration of aspects and applications of humanism, in the broadest sense of “philosophical” as a search for self-understanding, life wisdom, and improvement to the human condition. The topic of humanism is also understood to embrace its thoughtful manifestations across the widest breadth of cultures and historical periods, and non-western perspectives are encouraged. 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This journal participates in CrossRef, the collaborative reference linking service that turns citations into hyperlinks. © Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2015 Typeset and edited by Queenston Publishing, Hamilton, Canada. Essays in the Philosophy of Humanism (print) ISSN 1522-7340 Essays in the Philosophy of Humanism (online) ISSN 2052-8388 Printed in the UK. Humanism v22i2.indb 2 12/04/2015 23:36:15 Essays in the Philosophy of Humanism Volume 22.2 December 2014 Contents Articles Omniversal Liberty 119 Thomas Crowther Learning to Understand Others: The Pragmatic Rhetoric of 137 Ethnography and Religious Ethics in Clifford Geertz’s Works and Lives Beth Eddy Evolution and Existentialism 159 Sharon M. Kaye Values for Humanists 173 Philip Kitcher Atheist Jesus: A Revolution of Paradigms 187 Nicolò Scalzo Santayana and His “Hero” 213 Daniel Spiro Converging on Culture: Rorty, Rawls, and Dewey on 231 Culture’s Role in Justice Eric Thomas Weber Humanism v22i2.indb 3 12/04/2015 23:36:15 Humanism v22i2.indb 4 12/04/2015 23:36:15 Essays in the Philosophy of Humanism 22.2 (2014) 119–136 ISSN 1522-7340 (print) ISSN 2052-8388 (online) doi:10.1558/eph.v22i2.21475 Omniversal Liberty Thomas Crowther Durham University [email protected] abstract “Liberty,” as a word, is thrown about contemporary society as casually as a ball is on a summer’s day, and yet, does anyone have a grasp on what it is? If it is freedom from limitation, then liberty must represent nothing less than consciousness without restraint. But though this straightforward definition implies its acquisition to be equally straightforward, the full spectrum of lib- erty would certainly prove to be one of the most elusive concepts imaginable. As a result, what we have, and what we throw about so indifferently, is a Substitute—a poor kind of replica of the real thing. True liberty—Omniver- sal liberty—is much less tangible however, and represents the equilibrium that occurs when anything is possible, but where the capacity to ever allow one possibility to dominate over another becomes impossible to maintain. Keywords liberty, omniverse, universal, modernity, freedom Introduction: “What is Liberty anyway?” Liberty is the battle-cry of our age, pronounced from the lips of every politi- cian, reporter and soldier within every war of the modern era, with great and terrible civilizations rising and falling in its name. Lady Liberty thus acts as modernity’s Helen of Troy, with a thousand warships setting off to attain her at a moment’s notice. And yet, there is a question that few people ask when the call to arms is declared—what is liberty anyway? It is often regarded as the most basic of human rights—the right of auton- omy; that is, the right to choose for yourself without being influenced by out- side forces. In this regard, liberty represents the freedom to define who we are or who we wish to become without restrictions being imposed upon us. As © Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2015, Office 415, The Workstation, 15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield, S1 2BX Humanism v22i2.indb 119 12/04/2015 23:36:15 120 Thomas Crowther expressed in this article, both autonomy and self-determination have become critical components of the “modern attitude” and have aided in the creation of a liberal mentality in which identity is now thought to be something which is chosen and gained rather than something that is ascribed at birth. How- ever, the idea of self-determination (i.e. the freedom to define what and who we are) is increasingly becoming manipulated for commercial ends. As explored in the first half of this article, the autonomous agent of con- temporary society is actually highly influenced by an identity market which supplies a selection of choices from which the “sovereign-self” can ultimately be constructed. But despite the fact that the outside force and influence of the market certainly opposes the original idea of self-determining liberty, there is a greater issue still to be analysed—that autonomy, and any sense of the self, is restrictive and opposes a potentially higher form of liberty. The autonomous agent could certainly be regarded as free in one sense, because instead of the nature of reality being dictated to them as a series of given classifications and meanings, the autonomous being defines reality as he/she sees fit; defining their own sense of self away from what may be con- ceived as the traditional and the given. But what is important to remember is that all definition—whether chosen or given—confines potential, as the purpose of definition is to bound and categorize reality. This means that all our free choices—all