Cullen Murphy - Inside the heresy files. On a hot autumn day in Rome not long ago, I crossed the vast expanse of St Peter’s Square, paused momentarily in the shade beneath a curving flank of Bernini’s colonnade and continued a little way beyond to a Swiss Guard standing impassively at a wrought-iron gate.
He examined my credentials, handed them back and saluted smartly. I hadn’t expected the gesture and almost returned the salute instinctively, but then realised it was intended for a cardinal waddling into the Vatican from behind me. Just inside the gate, at Piazza del Sant’Uffizio 11, stands a Renaissance palazzo with a ruddy ochre-and-cream complexion. This is the headquarters of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, whose job, in the words of the Apostolic Constitution Pastor bonus, promulgated in 1988 by Pope John Paul II, is “to promote and safeguard the doctrine on faith and morals throughout the Catholic world”. Neuroscience Challenges Old Ideas about Free Will. Do we have free will?
It is an age-old question which has attracted the attention of philosophers, theologians, lawyers and political theorists. Now it is attracting the attention of neuroscience, explains Michael S. Druckversion - Habermas, the Last European: A Philosopher's Mission to Save the EU - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International. Jürgen Habermas is angry.
He's really angry. He is nothing short of furious -- because he takes it all personally. He leans forward. He leans backward. The FP Top 100 Global Thinkers. All revolutionaries want their stories told to the world, and no one has conveyed the hopes and dreams of Egyptians more vividly than Alaa Al Aswany.
The dentist turned author rose to fame with his 2002 novel, The Yacoubian Building, which charted Egypt's cultural upheaval and gradual dilapidation since throwing off its colonial shackles. Aswany used his prominence to help found the Kefaya political movement, which first articulated the demands that would energize the youth in Tahrir Square: an end to corruption, a rejection of hereditary rule, and the establishment of a true democratic culture. For his political activism, Aswany was blacklisted by Egypt's state-owned publishing houses, and security officials harassed the owner of the cafe where he met with young writers.
How times change. Intellectuals and Politics. The Stone is a forum for contemporary philosophers and other thinkers on issues both timely and timeless.
The Stone is featuring occasional posts by Gary Gutting, a professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, that apply critical thinking to information and events that have appeared in the news. The rise of Newt Gingrich, Ph.D.— along with the apparent anti-intellectualism of many of the other Republican candidates — has once again raised the question of the role of intellectuals in American politics. _lygazczg0T1qzwkt2o1_1280.jpg (JPEG Image, 800 × 1067 pixels) - Scaled (58. _lpelvrzwnj1qm1l9go1_1280.jpg (JPEG Image, 553x698 pixels) - Scaled (84. _lprkj895821qzwaddo1_500.jpg (JPEG Image, 500x665 pixels) - Scaled (93%) 36498702.jpg (JPEG Image, 795x800 pixels) - Scaled (77%) _locwhv0MIR1qbavd3o1_400.jpg (JPEG Image, 300x450 pixels)