Invisible Foundations: Science, Democracy, and Faith among the Pragmatists

Today science is almost universally regarded as an ally of democracy. Religion - once viewed by Tocqueville as the great support of democratic mores, in contrast to the materialism of then-contemporary atheists who threatened to undermine democratic commitments - is now viewed by many as antithetical to the openness and provisionality that marks both science and democracy. As framed by the neo-pragmatist Richard Rorty, religion is a conversation-stopper, the very definition of anti-democratic, anti-scientific anti-pragmatism. Whereas a pragmatic form of faith, notably democratic faith, secures belief in an ever improving future, the politics of skepticism is reinforced by the initial embrace of faith in redemption beyond the wholly human or political that is in turn accompanied by insistence upon humility and circumspection. Democracy may, in the end, require faith in some form, but it remains contestable whether the democratic faith of pragmatism is finally the form of faith that best serves the cause and prospects of democracy

Invisible Foundations: Science, Democracy, and Faith among the Pragmatists

Today science is almost universally regarded as an ally of democracy. Religion - once viewed by Tocqueville as the great support of democratic mores, in contrast to the materialism of then-contemporary atheists who threatened to undermine democratic commitments - is now viewed by many as antithetical to the openness and provisionality that marks both science and democracy. As framed by the neo-pragmatist Richard Rorty, religion is a conversation-stopper, the very definition of anti-democratic, anti-scientific anti-pragmatism. Whereas a pragmatic form of faith, notably democratic faith, secures belief in an ever improving future, the politics of skepticism is reinforced by the initial embrace of faith in redemption beyond the wholly human or political that is in turn accompanied by insistence upon humility and circumspection. Democracy may, in the end, require faith in some form, but it remains contestable whether the democratic faith of pragmatism is finally the form of faith that best serves the cause and prospects of democracy

Jimmy Swaggart's Secular Confession

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The published version is available from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02773940902766748 .Following the exposure of televangelist Jimmy Swaggart’s illicit rendezvous with a New Orleans prostitute, the Assemblies of God simultaneously orchestrated a massive attempt to silence those who would discuss the tryst and arranged the most widely publicized confession in American history theretofore. The coincidence of a “silence campaign” with the vast distribution of a public confession invites us to reconsider the nature of the public confession. For what place has a public confession, the discourse of disclosure par excellence, in a silence campaign? This question is best answered, I argue, if we understand public confession not as a stable a-historical form, but as a practice that is informed by multiple, competing traditions. I argue that by situating Swaggart’s performance in a philosophically modern and secular tradition of public confession we can understand both its complicity in a silence campaign and, more generally, the political logic of the modern public confession

Assessing chemical mechanisms underlying the effects of sunflower pollen on a gut pathogen in bumble bees

Many pollinator species are declining due to a variety of interacting stressors including pathogens, sparking interest in understanding factors that could mitigate these outcomes. Diet can affect host-pathogen interactions by changing nutritional reserves or providing bioactive secondary chemicals. Recent work found that sunflower pollen (Helianthus annuus) dramatically reduced cell counts of the gut pathogen Crithidia bombi in bumble bee workers (Bombus impatiens), but the mechanism underlying this effect is unknown. Here we analyzed methanolic extracts of sunflower pollen by LC-MS and identified triscoumaroyl spermidines as the major secondary metabolite components, along with a flavonoid quercetin-3-O-hexoside and a quercetin-3-O-(6-O-malonyl)-hexoside. We then tested the effect of triscoumaroyl spermidine and rutin (as a proxy for quercetin glycosides) on Crithidia infection in B. impatiens, compared to buckwheat pollen (Fagopyrum esculentum) as a negative control and sunflower pollen as a positive control. In addition, we tested the effect of nine fatty acids from sunflower pollen individually and in combination using similar methods. Although sunflower pollen consistently reduced Crithidia relative to control pollen, none of the compounds we tested had significant effects. In addition, diet treatments did not affect mortality, or sucrose or pollen consumption. Thus, the mechanisms underlying the medicinal effect of sunflower are still unknown; future work could use bioactivity-guided fractionation to more efficiently target compounds of interest, and explore non-chemical mechanisms. Ultimately, identifying the mechanism underlying the effect of sunflower pollen on pathogens will open up new avenues for managing bee health

The Future of American Democracy

Drawing on Aristotle this paper contrasts two conceptions of liberty – one, as ‘ruling and being ruled in turn’, the other as ‘doing what one likes’. It claims thatAmericacan be said to have had two foundings. The first was that of the Puritan settlers who adopted the notion of self-government and self-restraint; the second, ‘official’ founding heavily influenced by the social contract philosophy of Locke who understood government as existing only to secure our rights and advance our individual freedom.  Unlike the first understanding it does not seek to foster conditions in which our souls are educated in self-government. The author concludes that the future of American democracy will depend on which of these two conflicting conceptions becomes the dominant understanding ofAmerica’s liberty