Fallibilism (from medieval Latin fallibilis, "liable to err") is the philosophical principle that human beings could be wrong about their beliefs, expectations, or their understanding of the world. In the most commonly used sense of the term, this consists in being open to new evidence that would disprove some previously held position or belief, and in the recognition that "any claim justified today may need to be revised or withdrawn in light of new evidence, new arguments, and new experiences."^[1] This position is taken for granted in the natural sciences.^[2]

In another sense, it refers to the consciousness of "the degree to which our interpretations, valuations, our practices, and traditions are temporally indexed" and subject to (possibly arbitrary) historical flux and change. Such "time-responsive" fallibilism consists in an openness to the confirmation of a possibility that one anticipates or expects in the future.^[3]

Some fallibilists argue that absolute certainty about knowledge is impossible. As a formal doctrine, fallibilism is most strongly associated with Charles Sanders Peirce, John Dewey, and other pragmatists, who use it in their attacks on foundationalism. However, it is already present in the views of ancient philosophers that were adherents of philosophical skepticism, including the philosopher Pyrrho. Fallibilism is related to Pyrrhonistic Skepticism, in that Pyrrhonists of history are sometimes referred to as fallibilists, and modern fallibilists as Pyrrhonists.^[4][5]

Another proponent of fallibilism is Karl Popper, who builds his theory of knowledge, critical rationalism, on fallibilistic presuppositions^{[citation needed]}. Fallibilism has been employed by Willard Van Orman Quine to attack, among other things, the distinction between analytic and synthetic statements^{[citation needed]}.

Unlike scepticism, fallibilism does not imply the need to abandon our knowledge - we needn't have logically conclusive justifications for what we know. Rather, it is an admission that, because empirical knowledge can be revised by further observation, any of the things we take as knowledge might possibly turn out to be false. Some fallibilists make an exception for things that are axiomatically true (such as mathematical and logical knowledge). Others remain fallibilists about these as well, on the basis that, even if these axiomatic systems are in a sense infallible, we are still capable of error when working with these systems. The critical rationalist Hans Albert argues that it is impossible to prove any truth with certainty, even in logic and mathematics. This argument is called the Münchhausen Trilemma.

Moral fallibilism[link]

Moral fallibilism is a specific subset of the broader epistemological fallibilism outlined above. In the debate between moral subjectivism and moral objectivism, moral fallibilism holds out a third plausible stance: that objectively true moral standards may exist, but that they cannot be reliably or conclusively determined by humans. This avoids the problems associated with the flexibility of subjectivism by retaining the idea that morality is not a matter of mere opinion, whilst accounting for the conflict between differing objective moralities. Notable proponents of such views are Isaiah Berlin (value pluralism) and Bernard Williams (perspectivism).

Criticism[link]

Some suggest that epistemological fallibilism claims absolute knowledge as part of an axiom. Essentially, the statement "This much is certain: nothing is certain" claims the knowledge that: there is no knowledge; thus arriving at a contradiction.

Karl Popper has suggested the methodological approach that the statement be provisionally taken as true until another statement is presented that, after surviving a critical discussion, is accepted as certain. The acceptance of this statement as certain would then be sufficient to reject fallibilism.

See also[link]

• Probabilism
• Infallibility
• Logical holism
• Underdetermination
• The Problem of induction
• Perspectivism

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Charles S. Peirce: Selected Writings, ed. by Philip P. Wiener (Dover, 1980)
• Charles S. Peirce and the Philosophy of Science, ed. by Edward C. Moore (Alabama, 1993)
• Traktat über kritische Vernunft, Hans Albert (Tübingen: Mohr, 1968. 5th ed. 1991)
• The Open Society and Its Enemies, Karl Popper (1945) Vol 1 ISBN 0-415-29063-5, Vol 2 ISBN 0-415-29063-5

This article may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. More details may be available on the talk page. (September 2009)

Sidney Morgenbesser (September 22, 1921 – August 1, 2004) was a Columbia University philosopher. Born in New York City, he undertook philosophical study at the City College of New York and rabbinical study at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, then pursued graduate study in philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, where he wrote his Ph.D. thesis under the direction of Nelson Goodman. Morgenbesser returned to Columbia to teach in 1953 and, in 1975, was named the John Dewey Professor of Philosophy there. Morgenbesser was known particularly for his sharp witticisms and humor, which often penetrated to the heart of the philosophical issue at hand. He published little, and established no school, but was revered for his extraordinary intelligence and moral seriousness. He was a famously influential teacher; his former students include Jerry Fodor, Raymond Geuss, Robert Nozick, and Derek Parfit.

Morgenbesser's areas of expertise included the philosophy of social science, political philosophy, epistemology, and the history of American Pragmatism. He founded the Society for Philosophy and Public Affairs along with G.A. Cohen, Thomas Nagel and others.

Stories and quotations[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2008)

• During a lecture the Oxford linguistic philosopher J. L. Austin made the claim that although a double negative in English implies a positive meaning, there is no language in which a double positive implies a negative. To which Morgenbesser responded in a dismissive tone, "Yeah, yeah."^[1][2] (Some have it quoted as "Yeah, right." See litotes for the actual linguistic status of this hypothesis.)

• Morgenbesser was leaving a subway station in New York City and put his pipe in his mouth as he was ascending the steps. A police officer told him that there was no smoking on the subway. Morgenbesser pointed out that he was leaving the subway, not entering it, and hadn't lit up yet anyway. The cop again said that smoking was not allowed in the subway, and Morgenbesser repeated his comment. The cop said, "If I let you do it, I'd have to let everyone do it." Morgenbesser replied, "Who do you think you are, Kant?" The word "Kant" was mistaken for a vulgar epithet and Morgenbesser had to explain the situation at the police station.^[1][2]

• On the independence of irrelevant alternatives: Morgenbesser, ordering dessert, is told by the waitress that he can choose between apple pie and blueberry pie. He orders the apple pie. Shortly thereafter, the waitress comes back and says that cherry pie is also an option; Morgenbesser says "In that case I'll have the blueberry pie."^[3]

• Morgenbesser said the following of George Santayana: “There’s a guy who asserted both p and not-p, and then drew out all the consequences…” ^[4]

• Interrogated by a student whether he agreed with Chairman Mao’s view that a statement can be both true and false at the same time, Morgenbesser replied “Well, I do and I don’t.”^[1][5]

• During campus protests of the 1960s Sidney Morgenbesser was hit on the head by police. When asked whether he had been treated unfairly or unjustly, he responded that it was "unfair, but not unjust. It was unfair because they hit me over the head, but not unjust because they hit everyone else over the head.”^[1][5] Some of his students then argued that it may have been unjust, because he had not been proven guilty, but it was not unfair because the others were treated in the same way.^[2] This alternative version is sometimes attributed to Morgenbesser himself.

• Apocryphal: To B. F. Skinner, "Let me see if I understand your thesis. You think we shouldn’t anthropomorphize people?"

• Morgenbesser described Gentile ethics as entailing “ought implies can” while in Jewish ethics “can implies don’t.”^[2]

• Morgenbesser once set this as an exam question: “It is often said that Marx and Freud went too far. How far would you go?”

• When challenged why he had written so little, he fired back: "Moses wrote one book. Then what did he do?"^[1][2]

• On Jewish logic: "If P, so why not Q?"

• When asked his opinion of pragmatism, Morgenbesser replied "It's all very well in theory but it doesn't work in practice."^[2]

• In response to Heidegger's ontological query "Why is there something rather than nothing?" Morgenbesser answered "If there were nothing you'd still be complaining!"^[6]

• A few weeks before his death, he asked another Columbia philosopher, David Albert, about God. "Why is God making me suffer so much?" he asked. "Just because I don't believe in him?"^[1][5][2]

• Asked to prove a questioner's existence, Morgenbesser shot back, "Who's asking?"^[7]

• A student once interrupted him and said, "I just don't understand." "Why should you have the advantage over me?" he responded.^[7]

See also[link]

• American philosophy
• List of American philosophers

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f} The Independent, The Independent, Professor Sidney Morgenbesser: Philosopher celebrated for his withering New York Jewish humour, 6 August 2004
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} The Times, Sidney Morgenbesser: Erudite and influential American linguistic philosopher with the analytical acuity of Spinoza and the blunt wit of Groucho Marx, September 8, 2004
3. ^ Gaming the vote: why elections aren't fair (and what we can do about it), William Poundstone, p. 50, ISBN 0-8090-4893-0
4. ^ "Language Log" blog, Language Log, If P, so why not Q, 5 August 2004
5. ^ ^{a b c} The New York Times - Obituaries - Sidney Morgenbesser, 82, Kibitzing Philosopher, Dies
6. ^ There are two errors in the the title of this book: A sourcebook of philosophical puzzles, paradoxes and problems, Robert M. Martin, p. 4, ISBN 1-55111-493-3
7. ^ ^{a b} http://daily.nysun.com/Repository/getmailfiles.asp?Style=OliveXLib:ArticleToMail&Type=text/html&Path=NYS/2004/08/03&ID=Ar01400

External links[link]

• The Lives They Lived: Sidewalk Socrates, The New York Times Magazine.
• Sidney Morgenbesser, Times Online
• The Witty Professor, NPR.
• Columbia News
• Sidney Morgenbesser, Crooked Timber
• Sidney, by Leon Wieseltier, The New Republic.

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (July 2010)

Paul Kurtz
Born	(1925-12-21) December 21, 1925 (age 86) Newark, New Jersey, United States
Alma mater	New York University Columbia University
Known for	Committee for Skeptical Inquiry Council for Secular Humanism

Paul Kurtz (born December 21, 1925 in Newark, New Jersey) is a prominent American skeptic and secular humanist. He has been called "the father of secular humanism."^[1] He is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo, having previously also taught at Vassar, Trinity, and Union colleges, and the New School for Social Research.

Kurtz has published of over 800 articles or reviews and has authored and edited over 50 books. Many of his books have been translated into over 60 languages. They include "The Transcendental Temptation," "Forbidden Fruit: The Ethics of Secularism," "The Courage to Become," and "Multi-Secularism: A New Agenda." His published bibliography of writings from 1952 to 2003 runs over 79 pages.^[2]

Kurtz founded the publishing house Prometheus Books in 1969. He is also the founder and past chairman of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (formerly the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP)), the Council for Secular Humanism, and the Center for Inquiry. On May 18, 2010, he resigned from all these positions.^[3] Moreover, the Center for Inquiry accepted his resignation as chairman emeritus and board member, the culmination of a years-long "leadership transition," thanking him "for his decades of service" while alluding to "concerns about Dr. Kurtz’s day-to-day management of the organization."^[4]

At the Council of Secular Humanism's Los Angeles conference (7–10 October 2010), tension over the future of humanism was on display as Kurtz urged a more accommodationist approach to religion while his successors argued for a more adversarial approach.^[5]

He was editor in chief of Free Inquiry magazine, a publication of the Council for Secular Humanism. He was co-president of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU). He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Humanist Laureate and president of the International Academy of Humanism. As a member of the American Humanist Association, he contributed to the writing of Humanist Manifesto II. Former editor of The Humanist, 1967-78. The asteroid (6629) Kurtz was named in his honor.

Early years[link]

Kurtz received his bachelor's degree from New York University, and the Master's degree and Doctor of Philosophy degree from Columbia University. Kurtz was left-wing in his youth, but has said that serving in the United States Army in World War II taught him the dangers of ideology. He saw the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps after they were liberated, and became disillusioned with Communism when he encountered Russian slave laborers who had been taken to Nazi Germany by force but refused to return to the Soviet Union at the end of the war.^{[citation needed]}

Secular humanism[link]

Kurtz was largely responsible for the secularization of humanism.^{[citation needed]} Before Kurtz embraced the term "secular humanism," which had received wide publicity through fundamentalist Christians in the 1980s, humanism was more widely perceived as a religion (or a pseudoreligion) that did not include the supernatural. This can be seen in the first article of the original Humanist Manifesto which refers to "Religious Humanists" and by Charles and Clara Potter's influential 1930 book Humanism: A New Religion.

Kurtz used the publicity generated by fundamentalist preachers to grow the membership of the Council for Secular Humanism, as well as strip the religious aspects found in the earlier humanist movement. He founded the Center for Inquiry in 1991. There are now some 40 Centers and Communities worldwide, including in Los Angeles, Washington, New York City, London, Amsterdam, Warsaw, Moscow, Beijing, Hyderabad, Toronto, Dakar, Buenos Aires and Kathmandu.

In 1999 Kurtz was given the International Humanist Award by the IHEU.

Kurtz believes that the nonreligious members of the community should take a positive view on life. Religious skepticism, according to Paul Kurtz, is only one aspect of the secular humanistic outlook.

On 18 May 2010 the Boards of Directors of the Council for Secular Humanism, its supporting organization, the Center for Inquiry, and another supported organization, the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, issued a statement announcing that it accepted Dr. Kurtz's resignation as chairman emeritus, as a member of each board, and as editor in chief of Free Inquiry.

Neo-Humanism[link]

On March 2, 2010 Kurtz issued a new "Neo-Humanist Statement of Secular Principles and Values: Personal, Progressive, and Planetary."

The Paul Kurtz Lecture Series[link]

In June 2010 the State University of New York at Buffalo announced the establishment of the Paul Kurtz Lecture Series. The series will bring notable speakers to the University's campus in Amherst, New York to speak on topics relevant to the philosophy of humanism and philosophical naturalism. Kurtz made the bequest and charitable gift annuity to the University, where he taught from 1965 to 1991, to help aid the development of critical intelligence of future generations of UB students. On November 5, 2010 the University announced that cognitive scientist Steve Pinker would inaugurate the new Paul Kurtz Lecture Series on Dec. 2, 2010.

Eupraxsophy[link]

Kurtz coined the term eupraxsophy (originally eupraxophy) to refer to philosophies or lifestances such as secular humanism and Confucianism that do not rely on belief in the transcendent or supernatural. A eupraxsophy is a nonreligious lifestance or worldview emphasizing the importance of living an ethical and exuberant life, and relying on rational methods such as logic, observation and science (rather than faith, mysticism or revelation) toward that end. The word is based on the Greek words for "good", "practice", and "wisdom." Eupraxsophies, like religions, are cosmic in their outlook, but eschew the supernatural component of religion, avoiding the "transcendental temptation," as Kurtz puts it. Although critical of supernatural religion, he has attempted to develop affirmative ethical values of naturalistic humanism.^[6] Kurtz's Eupraxophy, then, is a practical analysis of morality that has much in common (if it is not identical to) the philosophy behind the science of morality.

Critique of the paranormal[link]

Another aspect in Kurtz’s legacy is his critique of the paranormal. In 1976 CSICOP started Skeptical Inquirer, its official journal. Like Martin Gardner, Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, James Randi and others, Kurtz has popularized scientific skepticism and critical thinking about claims of the paranormal. Kurtz wrote:

[An] explanation for the persistence of the paranormal, I submit, is due to the transcendental temptation. In my book by that name, I present the thesis that paranormal and religious phenomena have similar functions in human experience; they are expressions of a tendency to accept magical thinking. This temptation has such profound roots within human experience and culture that it constantly reasserts itself.^[7]

In The Transcendental Temptation, Kurtz analyzes how provable are the claims of Jesus, Moses, Muhammad as well as the founders of religions on American soil such as Joseph Smith and Ellen White. He also evaluates the antics of the most famous modern psychics and what he believes are the fruitless researches of parapsychologists. The Transcendental Temptation is considered among Kurtz's most influential writings.^[8]

On 19 April 2007 Kurtz appeared on Penn & Teller's television show Bullshit! arguing that exorcism and Satanic cults are merely "hype and paranoia."^[9]

Bibliography[link]

• The Humanist Alternative (Paul Kurtz, editor), 1973, Prometheus Books, ISBN 0-87975-013-8
• Exuberance: An Affirmative Philosophy of Life 1978, Prometheus Books, ISBN 0-87975-293-4
• A Secular Humanist Declaration 1980, ISBN 0-87975-149-5
• In Defense of Secular Humanism 1983, Prometheus Books, ISBN 0-87975-228-9
• The Transcendental Temptation: A Critique of Religion and the Paranormal, 1986 ISBN 0-87975-645-4
• A Skeptic's Handbook of Parapsychology (Paul Kurtz, editor), 1985, Prometheus Books, ISBN 0-87975-300-5
• Forbidden Fruit: The Ethics of Humanism, 1988, Prometheus Books, ISBN 0-87975-455-5
• The New Skepticism: Inquiry and Reliable Knowledge, 1992, Prometheus Books, ISBN 0-87975-766-3
• Challenges to the Enlightenment: In Defense of Reason and Science by Paul Kurtz, et al., 1994 ISBN 0-87975-869-4
• Living Without Religion: Eupraxophy, 1994, Prometheus Books, ISBN 0-87975-929-1
• Toward a New Enlightenment: The Philosophy of Paul Kurtz (Tim Madigan, editor; Vern Bullough, Introduction), 1994, Transaction, ISBN 1-56000-118-6
• The Courage to Become, 1997, Praeger/Greenwood, ISBN 0-275-96016-1
• Embracing the Power of Humanism, 2000, Rowman & Littlefield, ISBN 0-8476-9966-8
• Humanist Manifesto 2000, 2000, ISBN 1-57392-783-X
• Skepticism and Humanism: The New Paradigm, 2001 ISBN 0-7658-0051-9
• Science and Religion by Paul Kurtz, et al., 2003 ISBN 1-59102-064-6
• Affirmations: Joyful And Creative Exuberance, 2004 ISBN 1-59102-265-7
• What Is Secular Humanism?, 2006 ISBN 1-59102-499-4

See also[link]

• American philosophy
• Center for Inquiry
• Committee for Skeptical Inquiry
• Council for Secular Humanism
• Critical thinking
• Free Inquiry (magazine)
• Humanist Manifesto II
• Prometheus Books
• Secular Humanism
• Scientific skepticism
• List of American philosophers

References[link]

• Madigan, Timothy J. (ed.). Promethean love: Paul Kurtz and the humanistic perspective on love. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2006. xii, 327 p.

Footnotes[link]

External links[link]

• PaulKurtz.net - official website
• Paul Kurtz page at the Council for Secular Humanism site
• A Vigorous Skeptic of Everything but Fact The New York Times, June 19, 2002 (requires registration)
• Citation of Rationalist International Award 2000 to Paul Kurtz
• A critical 1981 article about Kurtz and CSICOP by a former colleague and CSICOP board member
• What is Secular Humanism?, speech by Paul Kurtz to the Freethought Association
• In Defense of Eupraxophy by Paul Kurtz, Humanism Today Vol 6, 1991.
• Eupraxsophy Revisited by Paul Kurtz, republished from Free Inquiry, Vol 24, Num 6, June/July 2006

Tim Harford (born 1973) is an English economist and journalist, residing in Oxford. He is the author of four economics books, presenter of BBC television series Trust Me, I'm an Economist, and writer of a humorous weekly column called "Dear Economist" for The Financial Times, in which he uses economic theory to attempt to solve readers' personal problems. His other FT column, "The Undercover Economist", is syndicated in Slate magazine.

Harford studied at Aylesbury Grammar School and then at the University of Oxford, gaining a BA and then an MPhil in Economics in 1998. He joined the Financial Times in 2003 on a fellowship in commemoration of the business columnist Peter Martin. He continued to write his column after joining the International Finance Corporation in 2004, and re-joined the Financial Times as economics leader writer in April 2006. He is also a member of the newspaper's editorial board.

In October 2007, Harford replaced Andrew Dilnot on the BBC Radio 4 series More or Less. He is a visiting fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford.

Awards[link]

• More or Less won the Royal Statistical Society's 2010 award for statistical excellence in broadcast journalism^[1]
• More or Less won Mensa's award for promoting intelligence in public life^[2]
• Harford was awarded the Bastiat Prize for economic journalism in 2007 (shared with Jamie Whyte)^[3] In 2010 he again drew with Whyte, in second place.

Publications[link]

• The Market for Aid (2005) with Michael Klein, ISBN 978-0-8213-6229-7
• The Undercover Economist (2005), ISBN 978-0-345-49401-6
• The Logic of Life (2008), ISBN 978-0-8129-7787-5
• Dear Undercover Economist: Priceless Advice on Money, Work, Sex, Kids, and Life's Other Challenges. New York, Random House. 2009. ISBN 978-0-8129-8010-3
• Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure. New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2011. ISBN 978-0-374-10096-4

References[link]

External links[link]

• Tim Harford's personal webpage with RSS Feed
• Harford's column at the Financial Times with RSS Feed
• He was a founder of PSD Blog - The World Bank Group's Private Sector Development Blog
• All is fair in love and war and poker - details of the first episode of "Trust me, I'm an economist" (BBC)
• More or Less BBC website
• Columns at Slate
• Blog at the FT, which began October 2007
• Video (and audio) of interview of Tim Harford by Will Wilkinson on Bloggingheads.tv
• TED TALKS Tim Harford: Trial, error and the God complex
• An interview with Tim Harford about The Logic of Life on The Marketplace of Ideas
• An interview with Tim Harford about Adapt on The Marketplace of Ideas

David J. Wolpe (born 1958) is an author, public speaker and rabbi of Sinai Temple (Los Angeles, California). Named the most influential Rabbi in America by ''Newsweek Magazine'' (2012) and one of the 50 most influential Jews in the world by the ''Jerusalem Post'' (2012), he is considered a leader of the Conservative Jewish movement. Wolpe was named one of The Forward's Forward 50, and one of the hundred most influential people in Los Angeles by Los Angeles magazine. Author of six books and a regular weekly column in The Jewish Week, Wolpe became the focus of international controversy when he gave a Passover sermon that discussed the historic validity of the Exodus from Egypt. In April 2012 he was named America's most influential rabbi by Newsweek and The Daily Beast^[1].

Career[link]

Wolpe has taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York, and served as assistant to the Chancellor of that institution; at the University of Judaism (now the American Jewish University) in Los Angeles; and at Hunter College in New York. At UCLA he teaches modern Jewish religious thought.^{[citation needed]} Wolpe is a regular contributor to several publications such as The Jewish Week, The Jerusalem Post, Los Angeles Times. He frequently is featured on documentaries on Biblical topics produced by A&E Networks (A&E, The Biography Channel, History Channel and History Channel International). He has also appeared as a commentator on CNN and CBS This Morning. Wolpe's most recent book, Why Faith Matters, is both an answer to books about atheism and a recounting of his battle with illness (he has undergone surgery for a brain tumor and chemotherapy for lymphoma). In 2008 and 2009, he had public debates with Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Steven Pinker, Roger Cohen,^[2][3][4] and Indian yogi and mystic Sadhguru, among others.^{[citation needed]}

Wolpe is the head rabbi of Sinai Temple (Los Angeles, California).

Missions to Israel[link]

Wolpe has led three missions to Israel since 2002. The first, in June 2002, was a solidarity mission at the height of the Second Intifada that broke out after the Camp David peace talks. The second, in May 2005, was a mission of gratitude to pick up the Torah commissioned in honor of his recovery from brain surgery.^[5] The third, in July 2006, at the height of the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War, was another solidarity mission that covered Jerusalem, Haifa, and Sderot. Wolpe also led the largest American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) delegation ever assembled from one synagogue (230 people) to the AIPAC conference in Washington in 2008.

Historicity of the Exodus[link]

On Passover 2001, Wolpe told his congregation that "the way the Bible describes the Exodus is not the way it happened, if it happened at all." Casting doubt on the historicity of the Exodus during the holiday that commemorates it brought condemnation from congregants and several rabbis (especially Orthodox Rabbis). The ensuing theological debate included whole issues of Jewish newspapers such as the Jewish Journal in Los Angeles and editorials in The Jerusalem Post, as well as an article in the Los Angeles Times. Critics asserted that Wolpe was attacking Jewish oral history, the significance of Passover and even the First Commandment.^{[citation needed]} Wolpe asserted that he was arguing that the historicity of the events should not matter, since he believes faith is not determined by the same criteria as empirical truth. Wolpe argues that his views are based on the fact that no archeological digs have produced evidence of the Jews wandering the Sinai Desert for forty years, and that excavations in Israel consistently show settlement patterns at variance with the Biblical account of a sudden influx of Jews from Egypt.

In March 2010, Wolpe expounded on his views saying that it was possible that a small group of people left Egypt, came to Canaan, and influenced the native Canaanites with their traditions. He added that the controversy of 2001 stemmed from the fact that Conservative Jewish congregations have been slow to accept and embrace biblical criticism. Conservative rabbis, on the other hand, are taught biblical criticism in rabbinical school.^[6]

Covenantal Judaism[link]

On November 10, 2005, Rabbi Wolpe addressed the Jewish Theological Seminary and proposed that the name of Conservative Judaism be changed to "Covenantal Judaism," to better encompass the view that rabbinic law is both binding and evolving.

Bibliography[link]

• The Healer of Shattered Hearts: A Jewish View of God (1991) ISBN 0-14-014795-0
• In Speech and In Silence: The Jewish Quest for God (1992) ISBN 0-8050-2816-1
• Teaching your Children About God: A Modern Jewish Approach (1995) ISBN 0-06-097647-0. Wolpe believes that nurturing children spiritually leads to greater intellectual and emotional enlightenment.
• Why be Jewish? (1995) ISBN 0-8050-3927-9
• Making Loss Matter: Creating Meaning in Difficult Times (1999) ISBN 1-57322-820-6. Wolpe recognizes the ultimate human potential to find strength from loss. He tells stories from his own life in addition to relaying lessons from ancient stories, rabbis, poets, philosophers, and scholars.
• Floating Takes Faith: Ancient Wisdom for a Modern World (2004) ISBN 0-87441-733-3. This collection of essays, explores some of the most challenging questions for the modern Jew. It considers how Jews live today and how ancient Jewish values shape the contemporary Jew’s understanding of his place in the modern world.
• Why Faith Matters, Wolpe's latest book asserts religion’s place in the modern world.

References[link]

External links[link]

• [1] The Daily Beast (2012)
• [2] The Jerusalem Post (2012)
• Covenental Judaism Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles (2005)
• CNN Interview November 1, 2001
• PBS Interview on the Afterlife
• Sinai Temple webpage
• Exodus Controversy
• Orthodox critique
• David Wolpe: Gems of Compressed Wisdom, Jewish Current Issues
• Wolpe's author profile
• Sam Harris vs Rabbi David Wolpe - Does God Exist?