Stephen Weldon Receives CFI's 2021 Morris D. Forkosch Award

Professor and Department Chair, Dr. Stephen Weldon, was recently named the winner of CFI's Morris D. Forkosch Award for Best Book of 2021 for his book, The Scientific Spirit of American Humanism (2020). The Council for Secular Humanism and the Center for Inquiry named Weldon, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Sarah Bakewell the winners of the 2021, 2022, and 2023 awards, respectively, after a 3 year hiatus.

Read the full press release here

In The Scientific Spirit of American Humanism, "Weldon explores humanism through the networks of friendships and institutional relationships that underlay it, from philosophers preaching in synagogues and ministers editing articles of Nobel laureates to magicians invoking the scientific method. Examining the development of an increasingly antagonistic engagement between religious conservatives and the secular culture of the academy, Weldon explains how this conflict has shaped the discussion of science and religion in American culture. He also uncovers a less known—but equally influential—story about the conflict within humanism itself between two very different visions of science: an aspirational, democratic outlook held by the followers of John Dewey on the one hand, and a skeptical, combative view influenced by logical positivism on the other." (read more at Johns Hopkins University Press)