Public Scholars at
Hanover College
Inquiries
Volume Six, Number One- Fall 2005
Philosophical Questions
As I write this, the House of Representatives has approved the renewal of substantial portions of the USA Patriot Act, making some of them permanent. Debate continues in the Senate, but there is no reason to expect a substantially different outcome. The USA Patriot Act, in some form, now has a permanent place in the law of the United States. Of course, the debate concerning the more controversial provisions of the Act is far from over. Judicial challenges, an intransigent bureaucracy, and the circus that is electoral politics will keep this debate at the center of the political culture of the United States for some time to come.
And, if what has happened so far is any guide, this debate will be fraught with fear-mongering, misinformation, and ideological posturing. In the spirit of shining a bit of light where there is mostly darkness, the Center for Free Inquiry at Hanover College held a symposium on the Patriot Act in February 2005. This issue of Inquiries and the next will publish four essays based on talks given at that symposium.
The essays in this issue focus primarily on philosophical questions concerning the nature of such fundamental values as privacy and freedom. The first essay is by Paul Rosenzweig, a Research Fellow with the Heritage Foundation and a law professor at George Mason University. Prof. Rosenzweig considers what privacy can be in the realm of modern information technology. The second essay is my own. I suggest a way of thinking about the proper relationship between freedom and security that bears on the Patriot Act.
The next issue will feature essays by John Yoo, a professor of law at the University of California at Berkeley, and Susan Herman, a professor of law at the Brooklyn Law School. These essays will address more directly the question of whether or not the Patriot Act is compatible with the Constitution.
John Ahrens John Ahrens is Professor of Philosophy at Hanover College and an Associate Director of the Center for Free Inquiry.
To request your copy of this issue, email CFI@hanover.edu. Be sure to mention which volume and number you wish to receive.
