Friday, February 16, 2007

Fundamentalism....

"Seeing oneself through the eyes of others is what modernity has asked of religion. The other in this case is a competing plurality of others, including different religious faiths, scientific knowledge, and political institutions. Fundamentalism is the rejection of this cluster of challenges, which Habermas describes as 'the repression of striking cognitive dissonances' and the return to 'the exclusivity of premodern belief attitudes.' A belief attitude indicates the way in which we believe rather than what we believe in. Fundamentalism has less to do with any specific text or religious dogma and more to do with the modality of belief." Quoting Giovanna Borradori, Philosophy in a Time of Terror (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), p.72.
I really like this quote - as it feels just as applicable to Howardism, economic rationalism and anti-sex feminism as it does to doctrinal religion.

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