Had There Been No Plato,

The Most Important Advance That The West Has Yet Made Is To Develop A Secularist Moral Tradition

I Think Of An Intellectual As Just Being Bookish, Being Interested In History Books, Utopian Ideas, That Kind Of Thing.

Nowadays, To Say That We Are Clever Animals Is Not To Say Something Philosophical And Pessimistic But Something Political And Hopeful - Namely, If We Can Work Together, We Can Make Ourselves Into Whatever We Are Clever And Courageous Enough To Imagine Ourselves Becoming. This Is To Set Aside Kant's Question "what Is Man?" And To Substitute The Question "what Sort Of World Can We Prepare For Our Great Grandchildren?

If I Had To Lay Bets, My Bet Would Be That Everything Is Going To Go To Hell, But, You Know, What Else Have We Got Except Hope?

There Are Credentials For Admission To Our Democratic Society [...]. You Have To Be Educated In Order To Be A Participant In Our Conversation So We Are Going To Go Right On Trying To Discredit You In The Eyes Of Your Children, Trying To Strip Your Fundamentalist Religious Community Of Dignity, Trying To Make Your Views Seem Silly Rather Than Discussable. We Are Not So Inclusivist As To Tolerate Intolerance Such As Yours.