The Common-Core/Diversity Dilemma: Revisions of Humean thought, New Empirical Research, and the Limits of Rational Religious Belief

This paper is the product of an interdisciplinary, interreligious dialogue aiming to outline some of the possibilities and rational limits of supernatural religious belief, in the light of a critique of David Hume’s familiar sceptical arguments -- including a rejection of his famous Maxim on miracles -- combined with a range of striking recent empirical research. The Humean nexus leads us to the formulation of a new ”Common-Core/Diversity Dilemma’, which suggests that the contradictions between different religious belief systems, in conjunction with new understandings of the cognitive forces that shape their common features, persuasively challenge the rationality of most kinds of supernatural belief. In support of this conclusion, we survey empirical research concerning intercessory prayer, religious experience, near-death experience, and various cognitive biases. But we then go on to consider evidence that supernaturalism -- even when rationally unwarranted -- has significant beneficial individual and social effects, despite others that are far less desirable. This prompts the formulation of a ”Normal/Objective Dilemma’, identifying important trade-offs to be found in the choice between our humanly evolved ”normal’ outlook on the world, and one that is more rational and ”objective’. Can we retain the pragmatic benefits of supernatural belief while avoiding irrationality and intergroup conflict? It may well seem that rationality is incompatible with any wilful sacrifice of objectivity. But in a situation of uncertainty, an attractive compromise may be available by moving from the competing factions and mutual contradictions of ”first-order’ supernaturalism to a more abstract and tolerant ”second-order’ view, which itself can be given some distinctive intellectual support through the increasingly popular Fine Tuning Argument. We end by proposing a ”Maxim of the Moon’ to express the undogmatic spirit of this second-order religiosity, providing a cautionary metaphor to counter the pervasive bias endemic to the human condition, and offering a more cooperation- and humility-enhancing understanding of religious diversity in a tense and precarious globalised age

Turning in circles: a new assessment of the Neolithic timber circles of Scotland

The large and growing number of timber circles recorded in Scotland as cropmarks on aerial photographs testifies to the important part they must have played in the later Neolithic monumental repertoire. However, this record of plough-levelled sites remains poorly understood, partly due to the problems involved in the interpretation of timber circles from cropmarks and the limited research that has taken place. In addition, it is rarely integrated with evidence from excavations. This paper, based upon research undertaken in 2003 for a Masters dissertation (Millican 2003) and recently updated, is an attempt to remedy this imbalance and outlines the current evidence for timber circles in Scotland and the new insight this provides into these enigmatic sites

One United People: The Federalist Papers and the National Idea

The Federalist and the Constitution, whose cause it defended, were created amid the turmoil of political controversy. Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, authors of The Federalist, were not theorists but fervent partisans in a campaign to gain acceptance—by no means a sure thing at that time—for the new plan of national government which they themselves had largely shaped. Their essays were immediately popular, were quickly collected and reissued in book form, and soon came to be recognized in America and Europe as a landmark in political theory—the basic blueprint for the American system of government. In this new, provocative study, Edward Millican argues persuasively that the authors of The Federalist were not merely laying the groundwork for the American system but were setting forth the principles for the creation of a modern nation-state. He defends this thesis through a systematic analysis of the entire body of The Federalist, taking up each essay and showing how its contents relate to the idea of nationalism. Millican is one of few critics to examine the essays in this thoroughgoing fashion. He concludes that they do not constitute an apologia for states’ rights, nor do they establish a passive government that would protect the rich and the privileged. In advancing these ideas, he takes decided issue with many scholars and commentators, including Ronald Reagan and the New Federalists. In One United People, Edward Millican puts forth one of the clearest and ablest expositions of The Federalist now in print. His vigorous advocacy of the theme of nationalism is bound to be controversial. But his reading of this classic of political theory will be one that future commentators must account for. Edward Millican teaches political science in San Diego, California. Innovative and stimulating. . . . The first historically structured, exegetic analysis of all eighty-five Federalist Papers. . . . All scholars of American political thought should read the work. —Choice A splendid study of the Federalist papers. —Samuel H. Beerhttps://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_political_science_american_politics/1026/thumbnail.jp

The survival of universities in contested territories: Findings from two roundtable discussions on institutions in the North West of Syria

This paper draws on discussions around the future of higher education (HE) in Syria after nearly a decade of violent conflict. Focusing on universities in non-regime-controlled areas, it illustrates the difficulties of sector-wide planning and the provision of institutional support during protracted conflict in areas with no single state entity or ministerial support

The Outside Inside: Combining Aerial Photographs, Cropmarks and Landscape Experience

This paper seeks to make a contribution to current debates concerning the dislocation in landscape research between experiential approaches and quantitative techniques of landscape analysis. It focuses upon a group of archaeological sites that are caught in the centre of this divide: plough-levelled sites recorded as cropmarks on aerial photographs. The application of experiential landscape analysis to plough levelled sites is explored, along with the value of incorporating information derived from the study of the aerial photograph. It is contended that richer, more rounded, interpretations of landscape are possible when combining aspects of quantitative and qualitative landscape research