Dan Simonson

“Liberal theory, however, doesn’t have to demonstrate the difference. It only has to show that moral decisions on matters of public policy in a pluralist and democratic state are satisfied, or justified, by a particular political test: the “ability to gain assent from people who retain radically diverse ideas about the point and meaning of human life, about the path to private perfection.”43 Appeals to the will of God through quoting the Bible, church doctrine, and ecclesiastical authorities, fail this test for public values because it isn’t clear how these appeals can be adjudicated.”
― Richard Rorty, An Ethics for Today: Finding Common Ground Between Philosophy and Religion

“Continuous energy incident on discontinuous electrons fails in the photoelectric effect. However, when the light energy is concentrated in a single particle-a single light quantum-that light
quantum can collide directly with an electron, impart all or part of its energy directly to the electron, and immediately send it flying out of the metal. Discontinuous energy incident on discontinuous electrons succeeds.”
― John S. Rigden, Einstein 1905: The Standard of Greatness

“Liberal theory, however, doesn’t have to demonstrate the difference. It only has to show that moral decisions on matters of public policy in a pluralist and democratic state are satisfied, or justified, by a particular political test: the “ability to gain assent from people who retain radically diverse ideas about the point and meaning of human life, about the path to private perfection.”43 Appeals to the will of God through quoting the Bible, church doctrine, and ecclesiastical authorities, fail this test for public values because”
― Richard Rorty, An Ethics for Today: Finding Common Ground Between Philosophy and Religion

“Within groups selfish individuals beat altruistic individuals, but groups of altruists beat groups of selfish individuals. Or, risking oversimplification, individual selection promoted sin, while group selection promoted virtue.”
― Edward O. Wilson, The Meaning of Human Existence