This is a very interesting piece from the John Templeton Foundation, a private family foundation that seeks to "serve as a philanthropic catalyst for discovery in areas engaging life's biggest questions". Those areas include the sciences, education, philosophy, theology, and free enterprise. The foundation's motto is: "how little we know, how eager to learn". Very Socratic.
The current online exchange asks: "Does the Free Market Corrode Moral Character?" Some of the contributors are more scholarly than others (Rick Santorum), but all of the responses are worth reading. Political and economic debates over the subprime mortgage crisis, the credit crunch, and the recession naturally focus on the intricacies of our financial system. As a result, however, we rarely have the opportunity to move beyond the particular to explore and discuss more fundamental and philosophical questions. Doing so demands an appetite for ambiguity and leisure time, which is quite possibly the greatest luxury of all. So, I encourage you to step away from the DJIA, unemployment rates, and interest rates - just for a few minutes - and take some time to "think big".
The Templeton Foundation's archive of "Big Questions" can be found here.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment