Search for criticism

A Muddled Defense of New Atheism: On Stenger's response

Massimo Pigliucci

Science, Religion and Culture

...s responded to my recent criticism of the so-called New Atheism movement (2013). Here I endeavor to counter Stenger’s note and highlight several of the ways in which it goes astray. To begin with, however, let me summarize the main points of my earlier paper.

...

Timothy Helton

In a Mirror Dimly: Anthropology and Restoring a Sense of Presence to an Empty World

...pport my thesis with the criticisms of anthropological conceptions and methods made by contemporary thinkers. Next, taking the work of E. B. Tylor as an example, I demonstrate the validity of such criticisms. Then, I offer two examples of alternatives to objectifying ethnography before tracing developments in anthropological method in the last decades that have greatly improved the lens used for the anthropological gaze. Fin...

Thad Metz's Fundamentality Theory of Meaning in Life: A Critical Review

Stephen Kershnar

... literature, devastating criticisms of rival theories, and a restructuring of the issues in a way that will shape future discussions of the field. It is also well-written, including interesting-and-enjoyable references to historical figures (for example, Mother Theresa, Adolf Hitler, and Paul Gauguin), artists (for example, Aldous Huxley and Woody Allen), and works of art (for example, Groundhog Day and Guernica). In this critical study, I summarize the book a...

Meaning as a Distinct and Fundamental Value: Reply to Kershnar

Thaddeus Metz

...dvances some penetrating criticisms of it that merit engagement. Specifically, Kershnar maintains, first, that I did not provide enough evidence that meaning in life is a genuine value-theoretic category as something distinct from and competing with, say, objective well-being, and, second, that, even if there were a value of meaning in life, my fundamentality theory of it would not capture its essence well. In this article, I reply to both of these

Meaning in Life Does Not Exist and Would Not Focus on Rationality If It Did

Stephen Kershnar

...sightful responses to my criticisms of his important book, Meaning in Life: An Analytic Study (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), on meaning in life. Here I argue that his responses do not succeed. Earlier I provided two objections to Metz’s theory. First, meaning in life is not a type of value distinct from the standard types of value, specifically, what is good in itself (intrinsic good), good for someone (prudential good), or good for someone i...

God in Cosmic History: Responding to my Critics

Ted Peters

...his article, I entertain criticisms of my book, God in Cosmic History, raised by Lowell Gustafson, President of the International Big History Association; Ann Milliken Pederson, Professor of Theology at Augustana College in Sioux Falls SD; Nancy Howell, Professor of Theology at St. Paul Seminary in Kansas City; George Murphy, physicist and pastor in Akron OH; and distinguished evolutionary biologist and winner of the Presidential Medal for Science, Fran...