Philosophia Publications

Alan Johnson's review of Free Agents 5/5: Review of Kevin J. Mitchell’s Free Agents: How Evolution Gave Us Free Will (Princeton University Press, 2023) Neurogeneticist Kevin J. Mitchell’s above-titled book explains how free will evolved with biological evolution; it also refutes the various theories of determinism. I have reviewed ...

Alan Johnson's review of Determined I have posted a critical review of Robert M. Sapolsky’s Determined: A Science Of Life Without Free Will (New York: Penguin, 2023) at https://www.academia.edu/111595070/Critical_Review_of_Robert_M_Sapolsky_Determined_A_Science_Of_Life_Without_Free_Will_New_York_Penguin_2023_. Sapolsky's book argues...

This is my review of Winston Churchill's six-volume work "The Second World War":

Alan Johnson's review of The Second World War 5/5: Winston Churchill had a long career in and out of the British government. He served in many governmental positions, including first lord of the admiralty (the political head of the British navy) from 1911 to 1915 and, at the outbreak of World War II, from September 1939 to May 1940. He was prim...

REVIEW OF JASON BRENNAN’S “AGAINST DEMOCRACY”

In his book, “Against Democracy,” Professor Jason Brennan proposes what he calls an epistocratic regime—a limitation of voting rights, directly or indirectly, to enable “the rule of the knowers.” I critically review this book at https://www.academia.edu/106405232/From_Philosopher_Kings_to_Libertarian_Elitists_A_Critical_Appraisal_of_Jason_Brennan_Against_Democracy_With_A_New_2017_Preface_by_the_Author_Princeton_Princeton_University_Press_2017_edited_September_24_2023_.

Alan E. Johnson
President, Philosophia Publications

Gary Herstein of the National Coalition of Independent Scholars recently reviewed my book “Free Will and Human Life” (2021) at https://www.ncis.org/sites/default/files/BK%20REVIEW%20TIS%2310_Free-will-human-life.pdf. The review starts at the fourth page of this link.

Alan E. Johnson

This is the second book of my planned philosophical trilogy on free will, ethics, and political philosophy. The first in this series, “Free Will and Human Life,” was published in 2021. The third, titled “Reason and Human Government,” is in progress.
“Reason and Human Ethics” (available in both paperback and Kindle ebook) argues that a secular, biological, teleological (end-directed) basis of human ethics exists and that reasoning and critical thinking about both ends and means are essential to human ethics. It examines how these principles apply in the contexts of individual ethics, social ethics, citizen ethics, media ethics, and political ethics.

Alan E. Johnson
Independent Philosopher and Historian

Reason and Human Ethics Reason and Human Ethics

INTERVIEW OF ALAN JOHNSON ABOUT HIS BOOK ON ROGER WILLIAMS AT THE JUNE 2023 DAR CONVENTION

On June 28, 2023, I was interviewed at the annual convention of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) in Washington, DC, about my book “The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience” (https://www.amazon.com/First-American-Founder-Williams-Conscience/dp/1511823712/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=). From their website and from my conversations with them, it appears that the DAR has totally changed from their segregationist and far-right positions in the early twentieth century. They are now welcoming to people of all races and political and religious (and nonreligious) views.

This DAR session was not recorded, but, in response to questions, I stated, among other things, the following:

• Roger Williams wrote in his most famous work, “The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution,” that he was making arguments from religion, reason, and experience. He had to make arguments from religion for two reasons: (1) all the then-current arguments by theocrats were based on religion, and (2) seventeenth-century England and New England were dominated by religious thought such that hardly any book or pamphlet would have been published in that century in those places that was not based, at least in part, on religion. Even Thomas Hobbes, who had a (justly deserved) reputation for being an unbeliever, had to make religious arguments in his writings. Williams, unlike Hobbes, was actually religious, though his religious views evolved during his lifetime to a point that they were not at all conventional. And Williams, unlike Hobbes, always supported absolute freedom of conscience and church-state separation.

• Williams also made secular arguments for liberty of conscience and church-state separation that were based solely on reason and experience.

• I was asked what my view of Williams’s greatest strength was and also what I thought was his greatest weakness. I answered that Williams was that exceedingly rare person who was both a politician (a founder and leader of a political society, in his case) while being, at the same time, deeply ethical in both speech and deed. His greatest weakness occurred in his old age when he participated in a four-day theological debate with Quakers. Although he always recognized that Quakers had an absolute political right to believe, communicate, and practice their religion, Williams’s debate with the Quaker representatives was marred on both sides by petty ad hominem and other vituperative arguments. This was rather typical of seventeenth-century theological debates.

One of the questioners from the audience said she is a descendant of Mary Dyer, who was hanged by the Massachusetts Bay theocracy in 1660 because of her Quaker religion. Massachusetts Bay also hanged three male Quakers for their religion at about the same time. My book discusses those and many other such events as well as Roger Williams’s reaction to them.

Alan E. Johnson
Independent Philosopher, Historian, Political Scientist, and Legal Scholar

I have created a list of the best books on a rational approach to ethics at https://shepherd.com/best-books/a-rational-approach-to-ethics.

Alan E. Johnson
Independent Philosopher, Historian, Political Scientist, and Legal Scholar
President, Philosophia Publications

"Reason and Human Ethics" (https://www.amazon.com/Reason-Human-Ethics-Alan-Johnson-ebook/dp/B0B64L7RFT?ref_=ast_author_mpb) is the second book of my planned philosophical trilogy on free will, ethics, and political philosophy. The first in this series, “Free Will and Human Life,” was published in 2021. The third, titled “Reason and Human Government,” is in progress.
“Reason and Human Ethics” (available in both paperback and Kindle ebook) argues that a secular, biological, teleological (end-directed) basis of human ethics exists and that reasoning and critical thinking about both ends and means are essential to human ethics. It examines how these principles apply in the contexts of individual ethics, social ethics, citizen ethics, media ethics, and political ethics.

Alan E. Johnson
Independent Philosopher, Historian, Political Scientist, and Legal Scholar
President, Philosophia Publications

On September 29, 2022, I presented a virtual lecture for the Pittsburgh Freethought Community on my recently published book “Reason and Human Ethics.” This presentation can be freely accessed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3wpZVv3ca8&t=13s. The lecture is about 52 minutes; the follow-up Q&A is about 46 minutes.

Trigger warning: This is a philosophical, not theological, approach to ethics. It is also a scholarly, not a popular, presentation. Those who have traditional religious views may wish to avoid viewing the lecture or reading the book.

Alan E. Johnson
President, Philosophia Publications

The January 12, 2022 U.S. Government indictment against the founder and leader of Oath Keepers and others for seditious conspiracy and other charges (announced January 13, 2022) regarding the events of January 6, 2021, is located at https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/21178554/charges.pdf. It is interesting reading.

s3.documentcloud.org