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Sam Harris, a previously unknown neuroscientist, single-handedly generated the New Atheism with his best-selling book The End of Faith, which quickly became a huge best-seller following its release in 2004.Harris went on to write several more best-sellers on a range of topics and has become one of the world’s most followed podcasters. He is well-known for his controversial positions in many areas, including the unique danger of Islam, the advocacy of atheist spirituality through meditation, the beneficial use of psychedelics, denial of the existence of free will, his belief that science can tell us what’s right and wrong, and his extreme alarmism with regard to the future of artificial intelligence.
Sam Harris: Critical Responses is a collection of essays criticizing different aspects of Harris’s thinking from a range of diverse perspectives—left and right, Christian and atheist, philosophical, psychological, and political. These twenty serious criticisms of Sam Harris, written by experts from diverse political and ideological backgrounds, are often severe while maintaining an approach that is reasonable and respectful. As one noted author commented on
Sandra Woien’s previous collection,
Jordan Peterson: Critical Responses, “Both fans and foes will appreciate this volume.”
Forward by Stephen R. C. Hicks. Stephen R.C. Hicks is a professor of Philosophy at Rockford University. He is the author of
Explaining Postmodernism (2004) and
Nietzsche and the Nazis (2010).
List of contents
Acknowledgments xi
Foreword: Why Sam Harris Matters
STEPHEN R.C. HICKS xiii
The Sam Harris Phenomenon xvii
I What Human Life Is For 1
1. Another Red Pill
SANDRA WOIEN 3
2.My Life Gives the Moral Landscape Its Relief MARC CHAMPAGNE 17
II Liberal Values 39
3.Spotting Dangerous Ideas DAVID RAMSAY STEELE 41
4.Intellectual Integrity or Social Justice? LUCAS RIJANA 57
5.Is Redistribution the Endgame? ANTONY SAMMEROFF 69
III Science and Ethics 91
6. The Mantle of Neuroscience RAY SCOTT PERCIVAL 93
7.A Miserable Argument MARK WARREN 115
8.Dark Spots in Sam Harris’s Moral Landscape DAVID GORDON 127
9.A Moral Compass that Works ERIK BOORNAZIAN AND JAMES W. DILLER 139
IV The Specter of Artificial Intelligence 151
10.Sam Harris and the Myth of Machine Intelligence JOBST LANDGREBE AND BARRY SMITH 153
11.Are We Too Dumb for Superintelligence? LISA BELLANTONI 163
12.Solutions to the Existential Threat of AI LEONARD KAHN 177
Part V I Feel Free 191
13.Neural Determinism and Neural Roulette JOHN LEMOS 193
14.Let’s Talk about Free Will! MEGAN DRURY 207
Part VI Beyond the Physical Cosmos 221
15.Another Thing in This Universe that Cannot Be an Illusion MAANELI DERAKHSHANI 223
16.Intimations of the Numinous REG NAULTY 235
Part VII No End to Faith 247
17.A Rational Proposal BETHEL MCGREW 249
18.Is Sam Harris Right about the Miracles of Jesus? MICHAEL BARROS AND BETHEL MCGREW 261
19.Scientism as Religion and Religion as Wisdom RON DART 275
About the Authors 287
Index 295
About the author
Sandra Woien is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies at Arizona State University. Her work has appeared in American Journal of Bioethics, BMC Medical Ethics, The Conversation, and Reason Papers. She edited the much-acclaimed volume, Jordan Peterson: Critical Responses (2022).
Summary
Sam Harris, a previously unknown neuroscientist, single-handedly generated the New Atheism with his best-selling book The End of Faith, which quickly became a huge best-seller following its release in 2004.
Harris went on to write several more best-sellers on a range of topics and has become one of the world’s most followed podcasters. He is well-known for his controversial positions in many areas, including the unique danger of Islam, the advocacy of atheist spirituality through meditation, the beneficial use of psychedelics, denial of the existence of free will, his belief that science can tell us what’s right and wrong, and his extreme alarmism with regard to the future of artificial intelligence.
Sam Harris: Critical Responses is a collection of essays criticizing different aspects of Harris’s thinking from a range of diverse perspectives—left and right, Christian and atheist, philosophical, psychological, and political. These twenty serious criticisms of Sam Harris, written by experts from diverse political and ideological backgrounds, are often severe while maintaining an approach that is reasonable and respectful. As one noted author commented on Sandra Woien’s previous collection, Jordan Peterson: Critical Responses, “Both fans and foes will appreciate this volume.”
Forward by Stephen R. C. Hicks.
Stephen R.C. Hicks is a professor of Philosophy at Rockford University. He is the author of Explaining Postmodernism (2004) and Nietzsche and the Nazis (2010).
