Chapter 10 Cooperation without God

Chapter 10 Cooperation without God
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In the summer of 2007, I visited Denmark’s attractive second city, Aarhus, and was surprised to see that anyone can borrow a bicycle,
Note:FIDUCIA NELLA TERRA SENZA DIO

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Denmark tops the lists of societies high on cooperation, social cohesion, and public trust.
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one of the least religious societies on earth.
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If you have a financial dispute with a stranger, you go to an independent court. Trusting the institutions
Note:I SUPPLENTI DI DIO

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policing authorities, and effective contract-enforcing mechanisms in modern societies—
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Big Gods were replaced by Big Governments.
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Big Eye

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Climbing the Ladder of Religion, Then Kicking It Away
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if you have followed the reasoning in this book, you can see that secular societies are really an outgrowth of prosocial religions.
Note:SECOLARISMO COME SCRESCENZA DELLE RELIGIONI

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Marcel Gauchet

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it was the monotheistic religions that reduced the role of the sacred and the supernatural from the material world, confining them to a supreme
Note:PRIMA CONTINUITÀ

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Second, the monotheisms introduced another innovation—other gods were denigrated as false gods.
Note:SECONDA CONTINUITÀ

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Universal monotheisms created two new concepts in human thought: individual free choice and collective humanity.
Note:DUE CONCETTI... INDIVIDUALISMO E UMANITÀ

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People not born into these religions could, in principle, choose to belong (or remain outside) without regard to ethnicity, tribe or territory.

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outsourcing religion’s functions to new forms of government.
Note:LA SECOLARIZZAZIONE

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Replacing God with Government and Vice Versa
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in peoples’ minds, gods and governments occupy a similar niche.
Note:DIO E IL GOVERNO

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Big Gods reign supreme in places where government is corrupt
Note:CORRUZIONE

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gods and governments both have surveillance
Note:SORVEGLIANZA

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they can both provide comfort in the face of adversity
Note:RISCHIO

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Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart

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strong and stable secular institutions erode religion.
Note:EROSIONE

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Religion has declined most steeply in welfare states such as Denmark, Sweden, and France.
Note:WELFARE

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psychologists Aaron Kay, David Moscovitch, and Kristin Laurin

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Their work explores the basic need to feel “in control.”
Note:SENTIRE IL CONTROLLO

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When people feel that their grip on life is shaken, they turn to external forms of control: it could be God, or it could be the government.
Note:CONTROLLO ESTERNO

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faith in government and faith in God appear to compensate for each other.
Note:LA COMPENSAZIONE

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These findings show, contrary to popular belief, how intertwined divine and secular authority can be. We cannot understand religious belief in isolation from secular cultural beliefs.
Note:LA CONNESSIONE LA SUCCEDANEOTÀ..POSSIBILE SPIEGA DELLE PAURE

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The Problem of Disbelief
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Disbelief is a puzzle—historically, when people lost faith, they gravitated to new religions.
Note:L ENIGMA DELL ATEISMO.... PERCHÈ NN C ERA?

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while self-reflectively there are atheists, intuitively, everyone is a theist.
Note:L OPINIONE DEGLI PSICOLOGI

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Paul Bloom,

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People everywhere naturally have some tacit supernatural beliefs;
Note:TUTTI CREDONO ALLO SPIRITO.... ESEMPIO LA MENTE

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even the most sophisticated of cognitive neuroscientists might believe, at an intuitive level, that their mental life is something above and beyond their physical nature.
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What Bloom is referring to here is an intuitive belief in mind-body dualism—
Note:TUTTI SIAMO DUALISTI

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Pascal Boyer explains: Some form of religious thinking seems to be the path of least resistance for our cognitive systems.
Note:LA RELIGIOSITÀ COME VIA NATURALE

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philosopher Robert McCauley compares religion’s intuitiveness to science’s counterintuitiveness. In Why Religion Is Natural and Science Is Not,
Note:INTUITIVITÀ DELLA RELIGIONE

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atheism is more widespread and enduring than expected if it was merely driven by effortful rejection of intuitive theism.
Note:OBBIEZIONE... C È QUALCOSA CHE RIGUARDA IL QUI ED ORA

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mind-blind atheism, which is caused by deficits in understanding God’s
Note:L ATEO SCANCERTATO

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analytic atheism; which arises when habitual analytic thinking encourages religious skepticism;
Note:L ATEO SCETTICO

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apatheism, which is a feeling of indifference to religion found in places where people enjoy safe and secure environments;
Note: L ATEO APATICO

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Mind-Blind Atheism
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We saw that when people pray to God, the same mind-reading or mentalizing skills that help people understand other people are recruited
Note:EMPATIA

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Of all these symptoms, perhaps the most critical aspect of the autism spectrum that causes social difficulties is selective deficits in reasoning about the mental states of others.
Note:ESTRANEITÁ E ASOCIALITÀ COME FONTE DELL ATEISMO

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an association between autism and religious disbelief.
Note:ATEO AUTISTICO

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evidence that autistic individuals seem to be indifferent to religion,

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Jesse Bering
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What is noticeably absent in the autistic accounts is a sense of deep interpersonal relations between the worshipper and the deity,
Note:ADORAZIONE

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Bering cites Temple Grandin, a well-known autistic and animal rights activist:
Note:ANIMALISTI

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Will Gervais,

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if God is transformed from a personlike agent to an abstract impersonal force, then it will lose its intuitive appeal. Faith in such a God will erode.
Note:PROVA: IL DIO DEI FILOSOFI È SNOBBATO

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one conclusion: mind-blind people are not enamored by the idea of a personal God.
Note:CONCLUSIONE CERTA

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Analytic Atheism
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the idea found in Boyer’s quote earlier—that of implicit theism, arising effortlessly but vetoed by reflection and deliberation.
Note:TESISMO IMPLICITO DA SVELLETE CON LA RIFLESSIONE

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Their motto is, “shoot first, ask questions later.”
Note:COME FUMZIONA LA MENTE

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Blaise Pascal had. He said: It is the heart which perceives God and not the reason.
Note:CUORE E MENTE

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Pascal was not fond of the attempts by many medieval Christian theologians, known as Christian Apologetics, to prove the existence of God
Note:DIMOSTRAZIONI MEDIEVALI

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There are many examples of erroneous intuitions being corrected by reflection.
Note:INTUIZIONE E RIFLESSIONE

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people who are habitual intuitive thinkers should be more religious
Note:CONGETTIRA TESTABILE

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any long-term habits or experiences that cultivate analytic thinking also should encourage religious doubt.
Note:ALTRO TEST

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Religious belief is the brainchild of intuitive thinking,
Note:ESITO... CONFERMA

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Amitai Shenhav, David Rand, and Joshua Greene

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Participants who were more likely to overrule the intuitive answer were also less likely to believe in God.
Note:OVERRULE

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the lower levels of belief among the analytic thinkers were not because they had higher education levels, more general intelligence, different personality profiles, or higher income, or were older or younger, more liberal politically,
Note:COSA NON CONTA

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analytic thinkers tend to lose their religious fervor even if they were raised in a religious environment.
Note:FERVORE

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Gordon Pennycook

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belief in a distant, nonintervening God (Deism), and the belief that the universe and God are identical (Pantheism).
Note:IN COSA CREDE L ANALITICO

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Viewing The Thinker compared to Discobolus produced a dip in religious belief.
Note:IL PENSATORE

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exposure to university education also in turn undermines religious belief.

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there is a small but reliable connection between measures of general intelligence and lower levels of religious belief. Intelligence fosters critical thinking, which in turn contributes to religious skepticism.
Note:INTELLIGENZA

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we would not expect this connection to be overwhelming, because, as I said earlier, other factors feed the flames
Note:EFFETTO TRASCURABILE

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Apatheism and InCREDulous Atheism
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as social and economic conditions improve, societies become, in the words of Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart, existentially secure.
Note:SICUREZZA

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nations with stronger existential security are less religious
Note:PIPPA NORRIS

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over time,
Note:NESSO

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Al Franken,

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I don’t care what kind of nonsense you believe, I can tell you that religion will be a crutch
Note:GRUCCIA

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thinkers of modernity, from Freud to Feuerbach, would have agreed with Franken:
Note:FREUD

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Reason, logic, or science have little to give us when we face intense anxieties
Note:ANSOA

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death and suffering intensify religiosity
Note:MORTE

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Chris Sibley and Joseph Bulbulia compared levels of religious faith before and after a devastating earthquake
Note:DISASTRI

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Aaron Kay and his colleagues, who showed that, like reminders of death, incidental reminders of randomness also amplify belief in God.
Note:IL CASO

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Lee Kirkpatrick

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attachment figures providing safety and comfort
Note:DIO

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This disbelief is not so much an opposition to religion, but an indifference to
Note:INDIFFERENZA

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Rauch extols the virtues of apatheism as a principled and tolerant
Note:TOLLERANZA

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InCREDulous atheism.

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Joseph Henrich,

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When observers witness acts that reveal sincere commitment or belief—that is, when actions speaker louder than words—they are more inclined to see these beliefs as genuine and more willing to adopt them.
Note:IN CERCA DI UNA REGOLA... EFFETTO VALANGA

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Strong, reliable governments might be another potent factor underlying inCREDulous atheism.
Note:GOVERNO

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supplant religion.

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Bringing the Varieties of Atheisms Together
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mind-blind atheism does not get religion; analytical atheism rejects religion; apatheism and inCREDulous atheism are indifferent toward religion.
Note:RIASSUNTO

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consider why scientists tend to be much less religious than the general population.
Note:ESEMPIO DELLO SCIENZIATO

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analytic thinkers are drawn to science

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willingness to see the world in material terms,
Note:AUTISMO

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scientists come together in the relative security

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in human brains, religion has a head start over atheism and science.
Note:SENSO RELIGIOSO

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Consider literacy as an analogy. Illiteracy is more intuitive and easier to arise than literacy,
Note:ANALFABETISMO

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The Future of Religion
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it is far from clear to me that secular societies will win
Note:CHI VINCE?

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prosocial religions have one crucial advantage over secular ones—the demographic windfall of more children.
Note:DEMOGRAFIA

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Today, most of the world remains religious,
Note:OGGI

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We don’t know enough to forecast
IGNORANZA

Chapter 9 From Religious Cooperation to Religious Conflict

Chapter 9 From Religious Cooperation to Religious Conflict
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Pity the nation that is full of beliefs and empty of religion. —Khalil Gibran
Note:GIBRAN

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how much of a role does religion play in violent conflicts? Critics of religion think that it is a major cause, and there is of course no shortage of examples, historical and contemporary: the Crusades, the early Islamic conquests, the sixteenth-century Catholic-Protestant religious wars, violent Jihadi campaigns of today, Hindu-Muslim violence, Lebanon of the 1970s and 1980s, Bosnia in the early 1990s, Northern Ireland. With these examples in mind, Richard Dawkins argues: Religious faith deserves a chapter to itself in the annals of war technology, on an even footing with the longbow, the warhorse, the tank, and the hydrogen bomb.
Note:LA POSIZIONE CRITICA: RELIGIONE PRIMA CAUSA DI GUERRA

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they offer counterexamples of violent conflicts motivated by secular ideologies that lack a religious dimension: the two World Wars in the twentieth century (including the carnage caused by Fascism and the Nazis), Stalin’s and Mao’s purges, and the genocidal Pol Pot regime, to name a few. Earlier, starting in 1915, the Committee for Union and Progress, known as the Young Turk Regime, Westernizers who wanted to reform and secularize the ailing (religiously organized) Ottoman Empire, carried out the first genocide of the twentieth century by annihilating most of the Armenian population as well as depopulating the rest of the Ottoman Christians from their ancestral lands.
Note:PRIMA RISPOSTA DEGLI APOLOGETI

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Moreover, defenders of religion point out that some of the sins attributed to religion are in fact caused by something else that gets entangled with religion. William James, one of the great founders of modern psychology who took a great interest in religion, put it this way: The baseness so commonly charged to religion’s account are thus, almost all of them, not chargeable to religion proper, but rather to religion’s wicked practical partner, the spirit of corporate dominion.
Note:SECONDA RISPOSYA

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If we take all the violent conflicts we know of in a given historical period, and assess the degree to which religious divisions were a factor, what would we find? Such studies are rare, but in the Encyclopedia of Wars, Charles Phillips and Alan Axelrod attempted one such comprehensive analysis. They surveyed nearly 1,800 violent conflicts throughout history. They measured, based on historical records, whether or not religion was a factor, and if so, to what degree. They found that less than 10 percent involved religion at all.
Note:10%

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In a related “God and War” audit commissioned by the BBC, researchers again scrutinized 3,500 years of violent
Note:SECONDO ESAME

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In the end, religion was a factor in 40 percent of all rated violent conflicts, but rarely as the key motivator of the conflict. Religion is an important player, but rarely the primary cause of wars and violent conflicts.
Note:ccccccccc

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Sharpening the Question: Three Clarifications about Religion and Conflict
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In the popular imagination, there are the tolerant religions (Buddhism gets a lot of votes, and of course, the pacifist Quakers!) and there are intolerant religions (the fundamentalist strains of the Abrahamic faiths).
Note:RELIGIONE DI PACE

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Today, many people, with more seriousness than Franken, think that radical Islam is the “problem religion” of the twenty-first century, but ten centuries earlier, it was Christianity (mainly Catholicism), and Islamic Spain was a cosmopolitan center of many faiths, a far more tolerant society than medieval Christendom. If some religions are inherently more violent than others, how do we explain these changes within a religious tradition?
Note:ccccccccccc

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Religion and Its “Wicked Partners”
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We wanted to know: do people who are more religiously devoted scapegoat other religious groups more? Or less? The answer, it turned out, depends on teasing apart “religious devotion” from its “wicked partners.”
Note:DISCERNERE NELLE RELIGIONI: ESCLUSIVITÀ DOGMATISMO PREGHIERA

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We also considered what James called religion’s wicked intellectual partner, the “spirit of dogmatic dominion.” We got a measure of religious exclusivity: “My God (beliefs) is the only true God (beliefs).”
Note:ccccc

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Hansen and I found that, after matching people on age, gender, occupational status, and other factors, exclusivity increased the odds of scapegoating. No surprise there—more dogmatic people are more scapegoating of other religions. But what was more interesting, holding constant exclusivity, was that prayer frequency reduced the odds of scapegoating.
Note:cccccc

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Religion inevitably contains, reflects, and reveals all that is within the realm of humanity: the good and the bad. It is like any other facet of human civilization: some of it is noble and inspirational, much of it is nonsensical and even dangerous.
Note:ALLPORT

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Religious tendencies contribute to intolerance and violence in at least three ways. The first one involves the workings of supernatural monitoring as a group-building social device. This leads to a sliding scale of distrust toward those who fall outside of one’s own supernatural jurisdiction. Second is the social bonding power of religious participation and ritual that could exacerbate conflict between groups. Third, religion fosters sacred values, making them immune to trade-off,
Note:LE TRE VIE DELL'INTOLLERANZA

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The Outer Limits of Supernatural Monitoring
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Social cohesion inevitably involves setting up boundaries between those who can be trusted and those who cannot. After all, and despite some theological teachings about universal love and indiscriminate compassion, a religious community would not be a cooperative community if there were no social boundaries.
Note:I CONFINI DELLA FIDUCIA

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Azim Shariff and I tested this idea in the well-known Dictator Game.
Note:TESTARE L'IPOTESI DEL DIO ONNISCIENTE

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If Christian folk were good theologians, they would follow Christian doctrine and be “Good Samaritans,” being generous equally with everyone. But they were not. Christian participants primed with thoughts of God were most generous toward the Christian receiver, less generous toward a stranger with unknown religious affiliation, and least generous toward the Muslim receiver
Note:CCCCC

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While this result is not exactly an indication of intense hostility toward religious outgroups, it does show that making supernatural monitoring salient does lead to a discriminant form of generosity that is sensitive to group boundaries.
Note:CCCC

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Religious Participation, Social Solidarity, and Conflict
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There is a common belief that social ties are inherently good, and indeed there is a great deal of evidence showing that people with strong community ties are healthier, happier, and more prosocial.
Note:IL LATO POSITIVO DELLE RELAZIONI FORTI

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The same processes that build community also open the door for exclusion to those who are seen as not belonging, and often, violent opposition to those who are seen as threatening. This could be called the social solidarity hypothesis of intergroup violence.
Note:IL LATO OSCURO

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In a series of experiments, psychologists Adam Waytz and Nicholas Epley illustrate how this seeming paradox enables a particularly toxic form of an intergroup attitude: dehumanization of socially distant others.
Note:DEUMANIZZAZIONE

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Who dehumanizes more: people who feel socially disengaged or socially connected? Their results were counterintuitive but decisive: feelings of stronger social connection to close others led to more dehumanization and harsher moral judgment of socially distant others.
Note:cccccc

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Suicide attacks come in waves, with one act of self-sacrifice inspiring others, creating cultural cycles of violent martyrdom. What better way to inspire and mobilize one’s community than to lay down one’s life for a cause? As an extreme form of parochial altruism
Note:KAMIKAZE

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We found that those who attended mosque often, compared to those who attended rarely or never, were twice to three-and-a-half times more likely to support suicide attacks against the perceived enemy (Israelis). This clearly supports the social solidarity hypothesis.
Note:IL SUICIDA È SOCIALMENTE ATTIVO

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No doubt, then, religious practices and rituals can add fuel to conflict. But it is important to emphasize that religious participation can also be coopted to work for greater inclusiveness.
Note:ATROCITÀ E INT

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In a pioneering study, a team of economists led by David Clingingsmith wanted to know what effects, if any, participation in the hajj—the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca—has on social attitudes toward various groups. Are people transformed by this powerful experience? This annual pilgrimage brings together millions of practicing Muslims from all over the world and all walks of life into the holy city of Mecca to devote themselves to prayer, fasting, and other ascetic practices.
Note:COME TI TRASFORMA ANDARE ALLA MECCA?

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Clingingsmith’s findings were complex and wide ranging, but they told a consistent story: hajj participation led to more tolerance toward Muslims and nonMuslims alike. It increased endorsement of equality, harmony, and peace among different ethnic and religious groups. Participation also encouraged more favorable attitudes toward women and their right to education and jobs.
Note:CCCCC

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It is only in political contexts where there is asymmetric conflict and there are strong feelings that one’s group is under threat that altruism turns violent. In less conflict-prone contexts, when there is no target to attack or adversary to scapegoat, religious attendance would be more about sacrificing and less about attacking.
Note:IL CONTESTO INDIRIZZA IL COMPORTAMENTO DEI RELIGIOSI

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there is the nature of the religious participation itself. In the case of the former, religious participation was local—it reflected how often Palestinians attended mosque or Jewish settlers remembered attending synagogue in their local neighborhoods. In the hajj, in contrast, participation is global by its very nature. It’s an opportunity for Muslims to meet and interact with other Muslims of all stripes from all over the world.
Note:PARTECIPAZIONE LOCALE O GLOBALE

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Religious ritual is typically enacted in a local context and cements ties with one’s immediate neighbors.
Note:CCCCC

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Religion and the Sacred: Negotiating the Non-Negotiable
Note:TTTTTT

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Finally, a third path from religion to conflict is something that religions are particularly good at: the creation of sacred values.
Note:IL SACRO

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Scott Atran and Jeremy Ginges explain: Ample historical and cross-cultural evidence shows that when conflict is framed by competing religious and sacred values, intergroup violence may persist for decades, even centuries. Disputes over otherwise mundane phenomena (people, places, objects, events) then become existential struggles, as when land becomes “holy land.” Secular issues become sacralized and nonnegotiable.
Note:GUERRA SANTA..E PERSISTENZA DEI CONFLITTI

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In one study among Iranian Muslims, reminders of death increased support for suicide attacks against Americans. However, when also reminded of Islamic compassionate values (“Do goodness to others because Allah loves those who do good,”), reminders of death decreased support for anti-American suicide attacks.
Note:TUTTO DIPENDE DAI VALORI SU CUI PUNTARE

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All of this tells us that parts of the religious bundle can create and intensify conflict, but somewhere in the same bundle there lie seeds that can be coopted to soften and overcome conflict.
AMBIVALENZA

Striscia azzurra di voglio bene

Striscia azzurra ti voglio bene

Ogni qualvolta scarrozzo sulla riviera ligure e noto la sfilza di parcheggi gratuiti mi viene un coccolone. L’assurda regola di città con carenza cronica di parcheggi sembra essere: chi prima arriva meglio si accomoda.

Immaginatevi se l’adottasse anche il panettiere.

Un giorno, giuro, sono andato fino ad Alassio per tornarmene con la coda tra le gambe e centinaia di euro in tasca senza poter scendere dall’auto!

Ma lo capisco, lì le amministrazioni sono prevalentemente di sinistra e “far pagare” una risorsa, per quanto rara, non rientra nella mentalità corrente.

***

Quanto sopra l’ho scritto l’anno scorso ma avrei potuto scriverlo anche l’anno prima e l’anno prima ancora.

Oggi però non potrei più scriverlo.

Dopo il rientro dalle vacanze, è partito a Varese il “piano parcheggi” che significa: tutto a pagamento.

In altri termini, a Varese non esisterà più un parcheggio gratuito, neanche per chi deve prendere al volo una michetta.

Sono incazzato, sono turbato, sono spiazzato, sono rattristato, sono sconfortato, ho voglia di urlare. Ma perché? Solo ed esclusivamente perché una cosa del genere l’ha fatta un’amministrazione di sinistra (e io tifo destra a prescindere)!

L’ha realizzata il sindaco di sinistra cosicché non potrò più riformulare l’ “ alto laio ligure”, un mio personale cavallo di battaglia.

Certo, la sinistra, per quanto s’imbelletti, non si libererà mai del tanfo di burocrazia che la pervade come il tanfo di selvatico pervade le capre: e allora giù con i permessi, le esenzioni, le eccezioni, le esimenti, i casi di necessità… giù con ogni complicazione di sorta fino a snaturare il po’ di buono che aveva fatto.

Sia come sia la questione è finalmente depoliticizzata. Se persino la sinistra si è convinta a bastonare i “parcheggiati”! Se l’ha capito anche lei – sebbene come al solito in ritardo – se davvero è accaduto questo miracolo, forse un giorno capirà persino… persino la Lega.

***

Da questa decisione tardiva ne avrà beneficio tutta la circolazione. Per esempio, sia il buon senso che le ricerche empiriche ci dicono che i parcheggi a pagamento favoriscono il carpooling poiché l’utente di questo servizio puo’ suddividere il nuovo onere.

E, per favore, non preoccupiamoci dei prezzi, se il prezzo è giusto il cliente compra volentieri. E’ una legge universale.

Certo… se fino ad ora hai fatto credere che esisteva Babbo Natale uscire dall’allucinazione collettiva è sempre duro per tutti.

Tuttavia, lo ripeto, il parcheggio a pagamento resta la leva ideale per riformare il traffico, la riduzione del quale non deriva mai da “meno viaggi” ma da “viaggi più brevi”.

Lo sapevate che il 30% delle auto che girovagano per la città sono alla ricerca di un parcheggio? Ed evito di riferire i tempi medi sprecati per trovarlo, o le distanze percorse a questo fine. Nelle grandi città, ma non solo, si tratta di numeri impressionanti.

Al punto che città come Milano cercano di sfuggire alla morsa consentendo il libro parcheggio sui marciapiedi. Non funziona. La cosa produce solo un piccolo è breve sollievo per quegli automobilisti a cui capita quel giorno di essere fortunati, ma produce un costo per tutti gli altri, pedoni compresi.

C’è sempre il burbero assessore rosso col cipiglio che propone: meno parcheggi, meno traffico.

E’ il solito vizietto di pianificare. Si fissino i prezzi giusti  e lasciamo decidere agli interessati, per favore. Il nostro cervello (soprattutto quello di un burbero assessore rosso col cipiglio) è troppo piccolo per fare un piano sensato in una materia tanto complessa.

Pensate poi al parcheggio gratuito che spesso un datore di lavoro offre al suo dipendente, di solito il datore di lavoro è un’amministrazione pubblica. L’idea che il parcheggio debba essere gratuito non ci fa percepire che siamo di fronte ad un fringe benefit da tassare a tutti gli effetti in quanto tale. E’ ovvio che  chi elude il fisco con trucchetti del genere l’ultima cosa che desidera è che la cosa venga a galla, magari indirettamente quando si rendono tutti gli altri parcheggi a pagamento.

***

Una buona riforma dei parcheggi dovrebbe contemplare almeno quattro misure.

Primo, tutti i parcheggi devono essere a pagamento.

Secondo, le tariffe devono essere correlate alla domanda e all’offerta (orari di punta eccetera).

Terzo, tutte le risorse devono andare alle amministrazioni locali ed essere destinate esclusivamente al miglioramento delle strade.

Quarto (la più importante), rimuovere ogni vincolo ai costruttori relativo ai parcheggi condominiali.

Meditiamo per un attimo sul quarto punto perché ad alcuni sfugge. Eppure, una volta che i parcheggi hanno le loro tariffe di mercato non ha più senso richiedere parcheggi condominiali, sarebbe un mero spreco! Noi non chiediamo alle cartolerie di vendere anche il pane, sebbene sia un bene essenziale. Questo perché lasciamo al sistema dei prezzi stabilire chi deve vendere e quanto pane va venduto.

Vincolare la costruzione delle case alla costruzione di parcheggi impenna poi i già esosi prezzi del mercato immobiliare penalizzando i clienti più deboli e favorendo l’orrenda dilatazione della periferia che sfuma negli altrettanto orrendi quartieri dormitorio (tutti dotati di ampio parcheggio).

Come se non bastasse, ostacola la ristrutturazione dell’esistente: una scelta molto più agevole se sgravata da una serie di obblighi collaterali.

Nella Silicon Valley secondo voi i parcheggi sono gratuiti?, ed esiste laggiù forse l’obbligo di costruire parcheggi quando si costruisce una casa? La risposta, ovviamente, è un doppio no.

Siamo sicuri poi che l’auto di proprietà sia un dogma? Certo che se spendo una vita di risparmi per comprarmi una casa con annesso parcheggio – ora non posso agire altrimenti – a quel punto non mi faccio mancare certo l’auto. Ma se il parcheggio condominiale non esiste e i parcheggi sono a pagamento può darsi anche il caso che mi organizzi diversamente.

Il parcheggio a pagamento è anche una soluzione di mercato al problema dell’inquinamento e, più in generale, del global warming. Ai soggetti più preoccupati da questa minaccia basterà aumentare le tariffe. Forse la cosa non è simpatica ma quando si parla di global warming le soluzioni all’ordine del giorno – specie quelle proposte da quei simpatici tipetti che vorrebbero “cambiare il nostro stile di vita”, tipo farci fare una doccia la settimana – sono ben più radicali e inquietanti. E allora, viva le strisce azzurre!

Ma ammettiamolo, la voglia di “parcheggio gratuito” è sia di destra che di sinistra, il cittadino povero è usato come uno scudo umano. Tuttavia, se uno crede davvero che esista un problema di povertà lo affronti nelle sedi opportune in cui si ridistribuisce il gettito fiscale, non quando si discute di parcheggi!

Molta opposizione deriva dalla scarsa familiarità con le modalità di pagamento, ciò lascia qualche speranza. La tecnologia snellirà snz’altro queste formalità. Già oggi a Varese pago con Pyng, ovvero con il cellulare e soprattutto con la possibilità di prolungare la sosta a piacimento senza dover tornare sul luogo fisico dove ho lasciato l’auto.

Andrebbe poi precisato che i parcheggi a pagamento non sono una privatizzazione in senso stretto poiché possono essere gestiti, almeno in una prima fase, anche dall’amministrazione comunale. Poi, quando si scoprirà che esistono gestioni più efficienti (e non c’è nulla di più facile che essere più efficienti di un’amministrazione pubblica), il servizio regolamentato verrà messo all’asta per la felicità dell’assessore al bilancio.

Ma perché tanta opposizione di fronte a tante notizie positive? Ogni novità comporta costi, sono il primo ad ammetterlo. Tuttavia, Machiavelli aveva già capito tutto quando scriveva che non c’è cosa più difficile che introdurre una novità nei comportamenti, questo perché l’innovatore ha per nemici tutti coloro che hanno prosperato nel vecchio mondo, senza avere l’appoggio di chi prospererà nel nuovo, che ancora non conosce la fortuna di cui è destinatario.

Il Papa e il consenso sul riscaldamento globale

Esistono dei tentativi sistematici di sondare l'opinione degli scienziati sul tema del riscaldamento globale. Lo studio principale a disposizione, per esempio, passa in rassegna 11944 abstract classificandoli in sette differenti posizioni rispetto all’affermazione per cui l’ AGV (anthropogenic global warming) esiste.

1. Esplicitamente concorda e ritiene che l'uomo sia la causa principale del riscaldamento globale: 64

2. Esplicitamente concorda ma non quantifica il contributo dell'uomo al riscaldamento globale: 944

3. Implicitamente concorda e non minimizza il contributo dell'uomo al riscaldamento globale: 2910

4. Non prende posizione: 7970

5. Implicitamente rigetta o comunque minimizza il contributo dell'uomo al riscaldamento globale: 54

6. Esplicitamente minimizza anche se non quantifica il contributo dell'uomo al riscaldamento globale: 15

7. Esplicitamente minimizza e ritiene trascurabile il contributo dell'uomo al riscaldamento globale: 9.

In un certo senso, sebbene all’interno di una tendenza chiara, la ricerca conferma una certa divisione (la comunità scientifica è come tutte le altre comunità e produce un cospicuo effetto trascinamento). 

Sì noti poi che a ritenere in modo esplicito che l'uomo sia la causa PRINCIPALE del riscaldamento globale è solo il 1,6% degli studi.

Ci sono addirittura scienziati i quali hanno affermato a chiare lettere che una certa forzatura nelle espressioni usate per giudicare il fenomeno è eticamente ammissibile se ha di mira la sensibilizzazione del pubblico!

E comunque il problema di Papa Francesco (e di molti ambientalisti) con il riscaldamento globale non riguarda tanto la sua esistenza quanto la la reazione ad esso. Le leve più efficaci a nostra disposizione fanno fulcro sul mercato e sulla tecnologia, in questo senso non cambiano affatto i nostri stili di vita (che a volte sembra la vera preoccupazione di certo “ecologismo”), anzi, rischiano di aumentare le diseguaglianze sociali. 

Five Proofs of the Existence of God Edward Feser

Five Proofs of the Existence of God

Edward Feser

Last annotated on Wednesday September 13, 2017

116 Highlight(s) | 113 Note(s)

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what might be known via unaided human reason, apart from divine revelation, concerning the existence and nature of God
Note:TEOLOGIA NATURALE

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1 The Aristotelian Proof
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Informal statement of the argument: Stage 1
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Change occurs.
Note:IL CAMBIAMENTO

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That changes of these sorts occur is evident from our sensory experience of the world outside our minds.
Note:ESTERNALISMO

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might even those changes be a kind of illusion? After all, the Greek philosopher Parmenides notoriously argued that when we carefully analyze what change of any sort would have to involve, we will see that it is impossible.
Note:L ILLUSIONE PARMENIDEA

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one premise after the other and finally reaches the conclusion is itself an instance of the change the argument denies.
Note:PARMENIDE SI CONFUTA QUANDO DIMOSTRA

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it is a mistake to think that change would have to involve something coming from nothing. Go back to the coffee. It is true that while the coffee is hot, the coldness is not actually present. Still, it is there potentially
Note:ALTRA CONFUTAZIONE... L ESSERE IN POTENZA

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What change involves, then, is for Aristotle the actualization of a potential.
Note:cccc

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Change requires a changer. We find examples all around us in everyday experience.
Note:CAUSA

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Now these days it is often supposed that the Big Bang theory shows that he was wrong. On the other hand, some scientists have suggested that the Big Bang was itself the result of an earlier universe imploding,
Note:IL BIG BANG NEGA ARISTOTELE?

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Even if such linear series of changes and changers might in theory extend backward to infinity, with no first member, there is another kind of series—let us call it the hierarchical kind—which must have a first member.
Note:NECESSOTÀ DEL PRIMO MEMBRO DELLA SERIE

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To understand what a hierarchical series is, it will be useful, by contrast, to think instead of what might exist at a single moment of time.
Note:COS È UNA SERIE?

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So, consider, once again, the coffee cup as it sits on your desk. It is, we may suppose, three feet above the floor. Why? Because the desk is holding it up, naturally. But what holds the desk up? The floor, of course. The floor, in turn, is held up by the foundation of the house,
Note:SERIE NON TEMPORALE

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this is not a series which need be thought of as extending backward in time.
Note:cccccccc

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we are considering each of these hierarchical series as existing at a particular moment
Note:QUI ED ORA

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What makes these series hierarchical in the relevant sense, though, is not that they are simultaneous, but that there is a certain sort of dependence of the later members on the earlier ones.
Note:DIPENDENZA

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What makes a hierarchical series of causes hierarchical, then, is this instrumental or derivative character of the later members of the series. The desk will hold the cup aloft only so long as it is itself being held up by the floor. If the floor collapses, the desk will go with it and the cup will fall as a result. The members of a linear series are not like that. The air conditioner is on because you turned it on. Still, once you’ve done so, the air conditioner will keep cooling the room even if you left the house or dropped dead. Now, it is because of this difference that a hierarchical series of causes has to have a first member while a linear series does not.
Note:NECESSITÀ DEL PRIMO MEMBRO

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the idea of a hierarchical series is best introduced by thinking in terms of a sequence whose members exist all together at a single moment of time,
Note:TUTTI INSIEME ORA

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change can occur only if things have potentials which can be actualized.
Note:RICORDIAMO LA PREMESSA

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Go back to the coffee in the cup. To state the obvious, it can only get cold, or be held up by the desk, if it exists;
Note:SOLO L ESISTENTE CAMBIA

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For one thing, the coffee will exist only insofar as the water that makes up the bulk of it exists, so to simplify things somewhat let’s consider that. What keeps the water in existence at any particular moment?
Note:ESISTENZA DELLA PRIMA CAUSA

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the sort of “first” cause we are talking about is one which can actualize the potential for other things to exist without having to have its own existence actualized by anything.
Note:LA CAUSA PRIMA

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is pure actuality itself.
Note:cccccccc

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Unmoved Mover.

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change requires a changer insofar as a potential can be actualized only by something already actual.

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CONDIZIONE NECESSARIA PER IL CAMBIAMENTO

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there is another kind of series in which one potential is actualized by another which is in turn actualized by another, in which there must be a first member. In this hierarchical sort of series, the first member is “first” in the sense that it can cause other things without being caused itself.
Note:PERCHÈ LA SERIE GERARCHICA HA UN PRIMO MEMBRO? 1. SI ASSUME IL PRINC RAGION SUFFICIENTE: TUTTO È SPIEGABILE SE SI PUÒ CONOSCERE 2. È CONOSCIBILE SOLO CIÒ CHE ESISTE 3. NELLA SERIE TEMPORALE NON TUTTO È CONOSCIBILE POICHÈ DI MOLTI MEMBRI ESISTE SOLO IL RICORDO E ALTRI SONO NEL NULLA 3. UNA SERIE GERARCHICA È CONOSCIBILE POICHÈ TUTTI I SUOI MEMBRI ESISONO QUI ED ORA 4 UNA SERIE GER È SPIEGABILE X IL PRIC DI RAG SUFF 5 UNA SERIED GER È SPIEGABILE SOLO SE IL PRIMO MEMBRO ESISTE DI PER SÈ

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Informal statement of the argument: Stage 2
Note:tttttt

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Something is perfect, then, to the extent that it has actualized such potentials and is without privations.
Note:PERFEZIONE

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Unmoved Mover must be one, immutable, eternal, immaterial, incorporeal, perfect, omnipotent, and fully good
Note:PROPRIETÁ

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A hierarchical series without such a first member would be like an instrument that is not the instrument of anything,
Note:STRUMENTO DI NIENTE

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Thus, even if for the sake of argument we allowed that there could be an infinitely long hierarchical series—D actualized by C, which is in turn actualized by B, which is in turn actualized by A, and so on ad infinitum—there would still have to be a source of causal power outside the series to impart causal power to the whole.
Note:IL CONTENUTO

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It is also sometimes objected that the argument for a first member of a hierarchical series begs the question, insofar as characterizing other causes as instrumental itself presupposes that there is such a first member.
Note:PERCHÈ UNA SERIE GERARCHICA?

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There is nothing in that characterization that presupposes that a series of such causes cannot regress to infinity or that there must be some cause which has underived causal power.
Note:Ccccccv

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2 The Neo-Platonic Proof
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Informal statement of the argument: Stage 1
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The things of our experience are made up of parts. Suppose you are sitting in a chair as you read this book. The chair is made up of parts,
Note:TUTTO È FATTO DI PARTI

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The book itself is made up of parts,
Note:cccccc

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There is a sense in which, in each of these cases, the parts are less fundamental than the whole.
Note:IL PRIMATO DEL TUTTO

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there is obviously also another sense in which each of these wholes is less fundamental than its parts. For the whole cannot exist unless
Note:IL PRIMATO DELLE PARTI

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How do the parts of a composite come together to form the whole? It can’t be the composite itself that causes this to happen.
Note:CHI COMPONE?

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composite things of our experience. At any moment at which they exist, their parts exist and are arranged in just the right way, and that is the case only because various other factors exist and are combined in just the right way at that moment. Composite things have causes,
Note:CAUSA APPROPRIATA

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combined in just the right way
Note:IL GIUSTO MODO

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the factors in question are simultaneous,
Note:LA COMPOSIZIONE SIMULTANEA

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what has been said here about ordinary physical parts like chair legs and screws would be true also of metaphysical parts like form and matter, if they exist. That is to say, anything that is a composite of form and matter would have to have a cause which combines those parts,
Note:VERO ANCHE PER LE ENTITÀ METAFISICHE

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Other metaphysical parts too might be identified. For example, Thomist philosophers hold that we can distinguish between the essence of a thing and its existence—that is, between what the thing is and the fact that it is.
Note:FORMA SOSYANZA ESSENZA ESISTENZA

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the principle that whatever is composite has a cause is completely general,
Note:IL PRINCIPIO

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for the reasons set out in the previous chapter, that series must have a first member. But the first member cannot itself be composite, for then it would require a cause of its own and thus not be first. So, it must be something noncomposite, something utterly simple
Note:SERIE GERARCHICA

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SEMPLICITÀ DEL PRIMO MEMBRO

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following the Neo-Platonic philosopher Plotinus, we might call the One.
Note:L UNO

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3 The Augustinian Proof
Note:3@@@@@@@@@@@@

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Informal statement of the argument: Stage 1
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We are surrounded by particular, individual objects.
Note:PARTICOLARE E GENERALE

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But each of these particular things is an instance of an abstract, general pattern.
Note:cccccccc

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Such patterns are called universals by philosophers, and they are “abstract”
Note:UNIVERSALI

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For instance, when we consider triangularity as a general pattern, we abstract from or ignore the facts that this particular triangle is made of wood and that one of stone,
Note:TRIANGOLARITÀ

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Universals like triangularity, redness, and roundness exist at least as objects of thought. After all, we can meaningfully talk about them, and indeed we know certain things about them.
Note:ESISTENZA DEGLI UNIVERSALI

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Like universals, propositions exist at least as objects of thought.
Note:ALTRE ASTRAZIONI... I PENSIERI

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Then there are numbers and other mathematical entities.
Note:NUMERI

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Finally, consider what philosophers call possible worlds.
Note:MONDI POSSIBILI

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So, in some sense there are abstract objects such as universals, propositions, numbers and other mathematical objects, and possible worlds. But in what sense, exactly, do they exist? Are they merely objects of human thought—purely conventional entities, sheer constructs of our minds? Are they merely useful fictions? Or might they after all really be material things,
Note:UTILI FINZIONI?

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conclude instead that abstract objects of the sort we’ve been considering are real, and neither reducible to anything material nor sheer constructs of the human mind. This is a view known as realism.
Note:REALI MA NN MATERIALI

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some version of realism about abstract objects like universals, propositions, numbers and other mathematical objects, and possible worlds must be correct. But which version? There are three alternatives: Platonic realism, Aristotelian realism, and Scholastic realism.
Note:REALISMI

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Aristotelian realists emphasize that abstraction is essentially a mental process, so that abstract objects are essentially tied to the mind.
Note:ARISTOTELICI

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there are universals, propositions, mathematical objects, necessities, and possibilities that the Aristotelian realist is bound to have a more difficult time dealing with. For example, suppose no material world or human minds had existed at all.
Note:I PROBLEMI DEGLI IMMANENTISTI

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Scholastic realist
Note:SCOLASTICA.... COLMARE I BUCHI DELL IMMANENTISMO

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endorsing a thesis famously associated with Saint Augustine—it holds that universals, propositions, mathematical and logical truths, and necessities and possibilities exist in an infinite, eternal, divine intellect.
Note:ccccccc

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If some form of realism must be true, then, but Platonic realism and Aristotelian realism are in various ways inadequate, then the only remaining version, Scholastic realism, must be correct. And since Scholastic realism entails that there is an infinite divine intellect, then there really must be such an intellect. In other words, God exists.
Note:IL REALISMO VINCENTE

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4 The Thomistic Proof
Note:4@@@@@@@@@

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So, we can distinguish between a thing’s essence and its existence, between what it is and the fact that it is.
Note:ESSENZA E ESISTENZA

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There are several reasons why the distinction between essence and existence must be a real distinction, a distinction that reflects objective, mind-independent reality
Note:DIFFERENZA REALE NN NOMINALE

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A second reason why the essences of the things of our experience must be distinct from the existence of those things has to do with their contingency
Note:CONTINGENZA

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The way these members are differentiated is by virtue of being associated with different parcels of matter.
Note:DISTINGUI TRA INDIVIDUI

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Note that to say that a thing’s essence and existence are really distinct is not to say that they can exist separately. It does not entail that (say) a stone’s essence is a kind of object and its existence another object,
Note:LA DISTINZIONE TRA ESSENZA E ESISTENZA

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Nor can it be the case that the things of our experience somehow impart existence to themselves—adding it, as it were, to their essences from outside.
Note:DALL ESSENZA ALL ESISTENZA

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So, anything whose essence is distinct from its existence must have a cause of its existence at any moment that it exists, here and now and not merely at some point in the past.
Note:QUI ED ORA... E NON NEL PASSATO

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Notice that what we have here is what I called in chapter 1 a hierarchical causal series.
Note:ANCORA LA SERIE GERAR CHICA

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So, for Fido to exist here and now and at any moment, his existence must here and now be caused, whether directly or indirectly, by something the essence of which is identical to its existence, something which is subsistent existence itself. And that entails that it must be caused by God.
Note:ANZICHÈ POTENZA E ATTO... ESSENZA E ESISTENZA

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6 The Nature of God and of His Relationship to the World
Note:6@@@@@@@@@@

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The rationalist proof begins with the principle of sufficient reason and argues that the ultimate explanation of things can only lie in an absolutely necessary being.
Note:RAZIOMALISMO

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7 Common Objections to Natural Theology
Note:7@@@@@@@@@

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“If everything has a cause, then what caused God?”
Note:tttttt

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If everything has a cause, then what caused God? If the response is that nothing caused God, then, the critic maintains, we might as well say that nothing caused the universe.
Note:IL NEOATEISMO

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The problem is this: Not one of the many prominent defenders of the cosmological argument in the history of Western philosophy ever actually put forward anything like this so-called “basic cosmological argument”. In particular—and to hammer the point home—you will not find such an argument in Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Al-Ghazali, Avicenna, Averroes,
Note:IL PROBLEMA... ARGOMENTO MAL FORMULATO

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Suppose “Intelligent Design” theorists routinely characterized “the basic Darwinian thesis” as the claim that at some point in the distant past a monkey gave birth to a human baby.
Note:ANALOGIA

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But that raises yet another question: How did this straw man ever enter the literature in the first place? A plausible answer was proposed by the Thomist philosopher W. Norris Clarke in his 1970 article “A Curious Blind Spot in the Anglo-American Tradition of Antitheistic Argument”.10 Clarke provides several examples of philosophy textbooks of the mid-twentieth century which present variations of the caricature of First Cause arguments that we’ve been discussing, including John Hospers’ widely used An Introduction to Philosophical Analysis. As Clarke indicates, Bertrand Russell’s famous 1957 book Why I Am Not a Christian (the title of which derives from a 1927 lecture of Russell’s that is printed in the book) may be the source from which many subsequent writers learned this caricature and the stock reply to it.
Note:ORIGINI DELLO STRAW MAN

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Hume-Russell straw man tradition

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Clarke suggests that what Hume did was essentially to confuse these two senses of “cause”, taking the rationalist claim that “everything has a ‘cause’-in-the-sense-of-a-suffuient-reason” to be identical to the claim that “everything has a ‘cause’-in-the-sense-of-an-efficient-cause-distinct-from-itsef.”
Note:LA CONFUSIONE... CAUSA E RAGIONE SUFFICIENTE

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“It is false to suppose in the first place that everything has a cause or an explanation.”
Note:PRESUPPORRE UNA RAGIONE

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In putting forward this objection, Stenger attributes some events to “chance” rather than causation.
Note:IL CASO

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Dennett and Rosenberg suggest that quantum mechanics shows that events can occur without a cause.
Note:QUANTI

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there is simply nothing about chance that rules out causality. On the contrary, chance presupposes nonchance causal regularities. To take a stock example, when a farmer plowing a field comes across buried treasure, that is a chance event. But it occurs only because of the convergence of two nonchance lines of causality: the farmer’s decision to plow in a certain direction that day, and someone else’s decision to bury treasure at precisely that spot.
Note:CASO E REGOLA

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Quantum physics shows at most that some events do not have a deterministic cause or explanation, but there is nothing in either the principle of causality or PSR per se that requires that sort of cause or explanation, specifically. Furthermore, quantum events occur even in a nondeterministic way only given the laws of quantum mechanics,
Note:CONFONDERE CAUSA E DETERMINISMO

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“Why assume that the universe had a beginning or that a regress of causes must terminate?”
Note:ASSUMERE IL PRIMO MEMBRO

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Richard Feynman, also suggests that for all we know there might always be deeper and deeper layers of laws of physics which we can probe until we get bored.
Note:DEEPER AND DEEPER

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First Cause arguments like those defended in this book are not concerned in the first place with the question of whether the universe had a beginning.
Note:ESCLUDERE LE SERIE LINEARI

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level upon level of laws of nature would constitute a hierarchical series of the sort described in chapter 1—laws at one level would hold only as a special case of laws at a deeper level, which would in turn hold only as a special case of yet deeper laws—and we have seen why such a series cannot fail to have a first member
Note:RISPOSTA AL DEEPER AND DEEPER

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“First Cause arguments commit a fallacy of composition.”
Note:FALLACIA

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“The cosmological argument presupposes the ontological argument, which is unsound.”
Note:KANT

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one needs to do more than merely claim that the cosmological argument presupposes the ontological argument should be obvious enough from the fact that Aquinas, and most Thomists following him, explicitly reject the ontological argument while endorsing the cosmological.
Note:E TOMMASO?

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“The cosmological argument proposes a ‘god of the gaps’ in order to explain something which in fact either is, or eventually will be, better explained via a naturalistic scientific theory.”
Note:DIO TAPPABUCHI

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“Science is the only genuine source of knowledge, and our best scientific theories make no reference to God.”
Note:SCIENTISMO

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scientism.

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“The fundamental laws of nature are best regarded as an unexplained ‘brute fact’ rather than as something in need of any explanation, theological or otherwise.”
Note:FATTO BRUTO

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One problem with this view is that it is incompatible with the principle of sufficient reason, and as I argued in chapter 5, the principle of sufficient reason is true.
Note:PRINCIPIO DELLA RAGIONE

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Another problem with this view is that it is entirely ad hoc. There seems to be no motivation at all for adopting it other than as a way to avoid having to accept arguments like the ones defended in this book
Note:AD HOC

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“A designer of the universe would be even more complex than the universe itself and thus require a cause of its own.”
Note:DESIGNER

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One problem is that the objection is directed at “design arguments” like those associated with William Paley and “Intelligent Design” theory.
Note:PALEY

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The arguments defended in this book simply have nothing at all to do with “design arguments” of this sort.
Note:ccccc

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“The God of philosophical theism is not the God most ordinary religious believers believe in.”
Note:IL TEISMO È IRRELIGIOSO

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it would be irrelevant even if it were true.

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But the objection in question is not true. For one thing, some religions to which ordinary religious believers adhere embrace the God of philosophical theism. For example, it is standard Catholic teaching that the God of the Bible and the God which can be known by means of philosophical arguments are one and the same.
Note:CATTOLICI

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“The reality of suffering and of other kinds of evil shows that God does not exist.”
Note:IL MALE

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First of all, it is not true to say without qualification that there are no limits to what an omnipotent thing can do. Even God cannot make a round square,
Note:ONNIPOTENZA

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It is not true to say that a good thing will eliminate all evil as far as it can.
Note:MALE VS IL MALE

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What sorts of goods would be eliminated if God were to get rid of all evil? The main examples are familiar from the literature on the problem of evil. For instance, it is good for there to be creatures which act of their own free will rather than being mere automata.
Note:FREE WILL

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“If God really existed, then he would not be ‘hidden’ from us, but his existence would be obvious to everyone.”
DIO NASCOSTO