“Surely we are justified in saying of our time: If you seek the monument to our folly, look about you. In our own day we have seen cities obliterated and ancient faiths stricken. We may well ask, in the words of Matthew, whether we are not faced with “great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world.”
Well . . . it hasn’t come . . . yet.
“For four centuries every man has been not only his own priest but his own professor of ethics, and the consequence is an anarchy which threatens even that minimum consensus of value necessary to the political state.’’
‘His own priest’ refers to Luther’s rejection of Catholic clergy. ‘Priesthood of all believers’. Now what? No authority anywhere.
When and where modernity begin this . . . this . . . decent to anarchy?
“It was William of Occam who propounded the fateful doctrine of nominalism, which denies that universals have a real existence.’’
(this centuries long argument about universals dominated the scholastic Middle Ages)
“His triumph tended to leave universal terms mere names serving our convenience. The issue ultimately involved is whether there is a source of truth higher than, and independent of, man; and the answer to the question is decisive for one’s view of the nature and destiny of humankind. The practical result of nominalist philosophy is to banish the reality which is perceived by the intellect and to posit as reality that which is perceived by the senses. With this change in the affirmation of what is real, the whole orientation of culture takes a turn, and we are on the road to modern empiricism.’’
(This question probably only still active in mathematics. What is the real source of mathematical truth?
Are — mathematical equations, geometric proofs, algebraic formulas — discovered or invented?
Is mathematics the work of humans or god? Well . . . if found, proves God exists; if man’s work, proves human reason supernatural.)
How does Weaver deduce this connection?
“It is easy to be blind to the significance of a change because it is remote in time and abstract in character. Those who have not discovered that world view is the most important thing about a man, as about the men composing a culture, should consider the train of circumstances which have with perfect logic proceeded from this. The denial of universals carries with it the denial of everything transcending experience.’’
Can personal experience confirm all the true things? Can it disprove all error?
“The denial of everything transcending experience means inevitably—though ways are found to hedge on this—the denial of truth. With the denial of objective truth there is no escape from the relativism of “man the measure of all things.”
What else?
“The expulsion of the element of unintelligibility in nature was followed by the abandonment of the doctrine of original sin. If physical nature is the totality and if man is of nature, it is impossible to think of him as suffering from constitutional evil; his defections must now be attributed to his simple ignorance or to some kind of social deprivation. One comes thus by clear deduction to the corollary of the natural goodness of man.’’
This is precisely where Diderot, Rousseau ended up. Modernity begins with a ‘vengeance’.
“Man created in the divine image, the protagonist of a great drama in which his soul was at stake, was replaced by man the wealth-seeking and-consuming animal.’’
1 The Unsentimental Sentiment
2. Distinction and Hierarchy
3. Fragmentation and Obsession
4. Egotism in Work and Art
5. The Great Stereopticon
6. The Spoiled-Child Psychology
7. The Last Metaphysical Right
8. The Power of the Word
9. Piety and Justice
“Notwithstanding this claim that democracy is quicker to recognize native worth, every visitor to a democratic society has been struck by its jealous demand for conformity. Such spirit is an outgrowth of competition and suspicion. The democrats well sense that, if they allow people to divide according to abilities and preferences, soon structure will impose itself upon the mass. Hence the adulation of the regular fellow, the political seduction of the common man, and the deep distrust of intellectuals, whose grasp of principle gives them superior insight. This society may even pay tribute to the exemplar of easy morals; for he is the “good fellow,” who has about him none of the uncomfortable angularities of the idealist.’’
Well . . . this is from seventy years ago. How did he know?
Another counter-cultural criticism . . .
“In reviewing the persistent tendency of the newspaper to corrupt, I shall cite a passage from James Fenimore Cooper. Though Cooper lived before the advent of yellow journalism, he seems to have stated the essential situation with a truth and eloquence impossible to improve on when he said in The American Democrat:
“As the press of this country now exists, it would seem to be expressly devised by the great agent of mischief, to depress and destroy all that is good, and to elevate and advance all that is evil in the nation. The little truth that is urged, is usually urged coarsely, weakened and rendered vicious, by personalities; while those who live by falsehoods, fallacies, enmities, partialities and the schemes of the designing, find the press the very instrument that the devils would invent to effect their designs.”
(falsehoods, enmities - right!)
“A hundred years later Huey Long made a statement of impolitic truth when he called his tax on newspapers a “lie tax.”
(Wow!)
“How, in the light of these facts, can one hesitate to conclude that we would live in greater peace and enjoy sounder moral health if the institution of the newspaper were abolished entirely? Jefferson observed at one time that it would be better to have newspapers and lack a government than to have a government and be without newspapers. Yet we find him in his seventieth year writing to John Adams:
“I have given up newspapers in exchange for Tacitus and Thucydides, for Newton and Euclid, and I find myself much the happier.”
Maybe we should . . .
“Let us inquire whether the continuous dissemination, of news by the media under discussion does not produce the provincial in time. The constant stream of sensation, eulogized as lively propagation of what the public wants to hear, discourages the pulling-together of events from past time into a whole for contemplation. Thus, absence of reflection keeps the individual from being aware of his former selves, and it is highly questionable whether anyone can be a member of a metaphysical community who does not preserve such memory. Upon the presence of the past in the present depends all conduct directed by knowledge.’’
Yep, that’s it — ‘absence of reflection’. Weaver nails it!
Writing for serious reader. Not obscure, but requires some background in history of ideas. Not a bad start for a beginner, if wanting insight beyond sound bites.
Mentions Plato (25), Aristotle (11), Socrates (5), Burke (9), Whig (5), Freedom (43), Yeats (7), Socialism (15), Science (41), Materialism (19), Religion (22), Government (18), History (39), Knowledge (82), Newspaper (31), etc., etc..
Erudite. Insightful. Interesting. Challenging. Educational.
About eighty notes (linked)
Includes twenty page essay on how this book came to be written. Interesting.
No charts or photographs.
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club?
Learn more
Join or create book clubs
Choose books together
Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Flip to back
Flip to front
Follow the Author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.
|
Price
|
New from | Used from |
|
Audible Audiobook, Unabridged
"Please retry"
|
$0.00
|
Free with your Audible trial | |
|
MP3 CD, Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged
"Please retry"
|
$19.46 | — |
Let’s Do Dinner is an invitation into Antoni’s easy kitchen Learn more
Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
-
Apple
-
Android
-
Windows Phone
-
Android
To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number.
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
HayekPaperback$17.00FREE Shipping on orders over $25 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Thursday, Sep 16
What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Customer reviews
Top reviews from other countries
annabelle rankin
Fascinating. Really clarified why my mind does not want ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 10, 2016Verified Purchase
Amazon Customer
Relevant today too
Reviewed in Canada on September 1, 2018Verified Purchase
Kayla Jacobs
Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on January 25, 2018Verified Purchase
阿部悠樹
英米国学の精髄
Reviewed in Japan on August 24, 2021Verified Purchase
Deals related to this item
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
