The next "Why?" radio show, a show about philosophical discussion in everyday life, will be broadcast at 5 p.m. Sunday with guest Charles Taylor discussing "A Secular Age" with host UND Professor Jack Weinstein.
"Why?" is broadcast monthly on 89.3 FM in Grand Forks and other North Dakota public radio stations. Weinstein, a philosophy professor and director of the Institute for Philosophy in Public Life, interviews world-renowned thinkers about issues of the day.
You also can hear the program in Winnipeg on Shaw Cable and online at www.whyradioshow.org.
Sunday's program, which invites listener call-in and e-mail questions, will be about people's fundamental beliefs, a news release said. Even the most religious of people understand that their belief is only one option of many. That's a different attitude from those who lived 500 years ago when theological commitments were so automatic as to not be questioned. Taylor and Weinstein will talk about what caused this radical cultural shift.
Taylor has been called one of the most important and influential philosophers today. His 1992 book "Sources of the Self" has affected contemporary philosophy, sociology, anthropology and other disciplines. Taylor is professor emeritus at McGill University, a recipient of the prestigious Templeton Prize, the author of more than a dozen books and countless scholarly articles.
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If you have a question you want to ask Taylor, you can send it to askwhy@und.edu .
Future shows and guests will be:
- Nov. 14: "Honor codes and moral revolutions," K. Anthony Appiah. Appiah teaches philosophy at Princeton and has been called "our postmodern Socrates." His latest book, "The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen," explores moral progress by looking at past campaigns against practices considered abhorrent today.
- Dec. 12: "Fictions as Philosphy," Rebecca Goldstein. Goldstein earned a Ph.D. in philosophy at Princeton. She is the author of "The Mind-Body Problem" and, most recently, "Thirty-Six Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction."
- Jan 9: "Art and Philosophy," Arthur Danto. Philosopher, author and art critic for "The Nation," Danto has been a major shaper of recent aesthetic theory. He is best known for a contemporary version of Hegel's "end of art" thesis.
- Feb. 13: "In a Different Voice and After," Carol Gilligan. An internationally acclaimed psychologist and prolific writer, Gilligan's primary focus came to be moral development in girls. Her books include "In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development" and "The Birth of Pleasure."
- March 13: "Is ghostwriting ethical?," Deborah Brandt. A professor of English at University of Wisconsin-Madison, Brandt's published articles include "Who's the President? Ghostwriting and Shifting Values in Literacy (2007)," and her books include "Literacy and Learning: Reflections on Writing, Reading and Society (2009)."
- April 10: "Are there just wars?," Michael Walzer. One of America's foremost political thinkers, Walzer has written about political theory and moral philosophy, including political obligation, just and unjust war, nationalism and ethnicity and economic justice. His books include "Just and Unjust Wars" and "Arguing About War."
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- May 8: "On Liberty and Libertarianism," James R. Otteson. Joint professor of philosophy and economics at Yeshiva University in New York, Otteson shows in his book, "Actual Ethics," how a classical liberal state would address vexing moral and political issues. He has a blog at www.jamesotteson.com/.
