About Me

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Australian philosopher, literary critic, legal scholar, and professional writer. Based in Newcastle, NSW. My latest books are THE TYRANNY OF OPINION: CONFORMITY AND THE FUTURE OF LIBERALISM (2019); AT THE DAWN OF A GREAT TRANSITION: THE QUESTION OF RADICAL ENHANCEMENT (2021); and HOW WE BECAME POST-LIBERAL: THE RISE AND FALL OF TOLERATION (2024).

Sunday, March 04, 2012

I have spoken!

I've just given my talk at the Moving Secularism Forward conference - the talk for which I actually came all the way to the US. It seemed to go well at my end, though I am the last person to judge the quality of the performance! (I now await the searching, sceptical reviews on the internet.)

I put the case that there is a philosophically principled basis for secular government, and that much of it can be found back in the work of John Locke, though it needs to be updated and adapted to twenty-first-century circumstances. Even many (perhaps most) religious people can understand and accept this case, though they may not be willing to follow it all to its logical conclusion.

I'll be speaking on the same topic at CFI headquarters in Amherst (Buffalo), NY, next Friday night. Meanwhile, I will be talking next week on rather different issues (largely bioethical ones) at Yale and at Trinity College, Hartford.

I'm looking forward to tonight's conference banquet! I must check what I'm missing this afternoon on the conference program (I needed a beer or two after my talk, so I'm afraid I am probably missing something important and wonderful).

5 comments:

Steven Paul Leiva said...

Congrats, Russell -- wish I could have been there! I assum it was video taped?

Russell Blackford said...

It was audiotaped, so I guess it will be available on the CFI or CSH site a bit down the track.

Eamon Knight said...

Amherst? Gosh, almost in spittin' distance of us. You wouldn't be dropping in on Udo in Kingston, would you?

Russell Blackford said...

Fraid not - just one night in Amherst to speak at the CFI headquarters.

Ophelia Benson said...

You missed Pat Schroeder - former Congressional Rep and VP candidate (with...Mondale? 1988?). I have her NAME TAG. #toocool