Preface
General principles, such as "justice" or "equality," are often passionately
invoked in the course of arguing about the issues of the day, but such terms
usually go undefined and unexamined. Often much more could be gained by
scrutinizing what we ourselves mean by such notions than by trying to convince
or overwhelm others. If we understood what we were really saying, in many cases
we might not say it or, if we did, we might have a better chance of making our
reasons understood by those who disagree with us.
The heady rush of rhetoric and visions are the stuff of everyday politics and
everyday media discussion. That makes it all the more important that, at some
point, we step back and examine what it all means underneath the froth or
glitter. This book is an attempt to do that.
The ideas discussed here took shape over a long period of time. The title essay
evolved out of a paper I gave in St. Gallen, Switzerland, in 198 ... read full excerpt from The Quest for Cosmic Justice ebook
