Christoph, glad you asked about Dawkins, somone who I have read and contemplated upon.
Returning to philosophy and science - what do others here think of Richard Dawkins? To me, he's a great scientist in his field, but it seems he becomes irrational when it comes to people with even the slightest religious inclinations
Dawkins is a remarkable thinker and well prepared to think unpopular thoughts, his work on the extended phenotype and selfish gene evidence this. He is also highly critical of anything outside scientific rigour, from homeopathy to religion, in other words 'non scientific'. He has become as bigotted and arrogant as those in the systems he criticises. I suppose moral standpoints arise inevitably in the work he does - after all he really does face ideological wars from creationists and his late foe SJ Gould, but to my mind he is not doing himself any favours.
As a moral philosopher he is Neanderthal. He seems to miss the point that philosophy, religion, science all seek objective reality/truth. His recent work, 'the Devil's Chaplain', has some essays attacking non scientific stuff, and by his own stated standards of logic and rigour they are embarrassing. However, the topics are stimulating, his evolutionary messages are powerful and well supported, still, I fear for his unmanifest soul.
I have particular interest in reality seeking systems of any type as well as the fact that such systems exist at all. I would be delighted to have discussion around the interaction of philosophy, religion, science etc. I spent a few years as an SES student, enjoyed the teaching and principles, but I found the pressure to conform intolerable, so I left.