Society

George Levine: The Joy of Secularism

by Tamas Pataki •

December 2011–January 2012, no. 337

Society

George Levine: The Joy of Secularism

by Tamas Pataki •

December 2011–January 2012, no. 337

The limits of enchantment

Tamas Pataki

The Joy of Secularism: 11 Essays for How We Live Now
edited by George Levine
Princeton University Press (Footprint Books), $46.95 hb, 272 pp, 9780691149103

The war of religion currently being fought with fusillades of paperbacks and feuilletons has taken a new turn. It started with an ambuscade by the ‘new’ atheists – also known as ‘militant’ or ‘Darwinian’ atheists – Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and the ubiquitous Christopher Hitchens (may he remain so). They were quickly joined by many sympathisers sharing the belief that peace, secularism, and rationality are under assault, not only from religious extremists, but also from the root religious ideas and attitudes that are presumed to nourish them.

Tamas Pataki

Tamas Pataki is honorary senior fellow at the University of Melbourne (School of Historical and Philosophical Studies) and honorary fellow of Deakin University. He studied philosophy at the University of Melbourne and psychoanalysis at University College, London University. He has been a lecturer in philosophy at RMIT, the University of Tasmania, and the University of Melbourne. He co-edited, with Michael Levine, Racism in Mind (2004) and is the author of Against Religion (2007), numerous journal articles and book chapters on the philosophy of mind, and many popular pieces and reviews.