Tim Sandefur wrote a brief reply to me last evening. I think he's right, we don't really disagree, we're just using two different terms. I tend to say that where there is a legitimate governmental interest in a given area, it's a restriction on that right. He tends to say that if there's a legitimate governmental interest, then no right was there to be restricted in the first place. But we both reach the same result, which is hardly surprising since we both tend to take a libertarian perspective on legal issues in the first place. Anyway, read his reply and the rest of his blog too. It's good stuff, even aside from the law stuff. He loved Larry Solum's essay on the 9th amendment, as I did, but I'm awarding an additional 15 points to him for the Daniel Dennett reference. Dennett is a philosopher from Tufts and the director of the Center for Cognitive Studies. Also the author of one of the best books on evolutionary theory, Darwin's Dangerous Idea.
Sandefur and the 9th, Take 2
Everyone has been buzzing lately about Leon Wieseltier's nasty review of Daniel Dennett's new book, Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon.
Robert Wright has written an article about what he characterizes as a rather dramatic admission by Daniel Dennett, one of our foremost minds and also a prominent atheist, that life on earth shows signs of having been the product
You can tell when a dogmatic theist has to review a book by an unapologetic atheist: there's a lot of indignant spluttering, and soon the poor fellow is looking for an excuse to dismiss the whole exercise, so that he doesn't have to actually think about the issues.