When Reason Goes on Holiday: Philosophers in Politics Hardcover – November 15, 2016

Somewhat reminiscent of Paul Johnson’s book, Intellectuals, When Reason Goes on Holiday focuses on academic philosophers. Its key point is summarized in the Goya painting which graces the dustjacket: the sleep of reason produces monsters. Why, the author asks, do so many academic philosophers subscribe to political views that are not only far-left, but completely out of touch with reality? How can any thinking person acquiesce in the Stalinist gulag, mass starvation and the torture and execution of political dissidents? How can a figure such as Angela Davis defend dissidents in capitalist countries but support the notion that dissidents in socialist countries should rot in prison? How could Heidegger support Hitler? How could Imre Lakatos support the crushing of the Hungarian uprising?

The book consists of 13 chapters plus a conclusion and focuses on (among others) Otto Neurath, Rudolf Carnap, Kurt Godel, Einstein, Wittgenstein, Lakatos, Jerry Cohen, Michael Dummett, Hilary Putnam, and Donald Davidson. Some are indicted on more serious charges than others. The American Philosophical Association (like the Modern Language Association, which is fond of creating left-wing resolutions) comes in for its licks.

The central theme offers a very good question—how can someone so knowledgeable in a given academic field display such ignorance in world politics? I remember several years ago when a high official in one prominent professional association was given a tour of ‘academic Russia’. He was shown a faculty apartment and returned to the U.S. dazzled by how well the apartment was appointed. It never occurred to him that this might be a one-of-a-kind showpiece used to dupe naïve foreign intellectuals.

When Reason Goes on Holiday is strongest in its accounts of individual thinkers. Each is presented as a kind of case study. There is less attention given to the ‘why’s’ than to the mini-biographies. At the end, however, some solid suggestions are offered. Perhaps the best is the notion that academics are notoriously risk-averse and given the bubbled nature of the profession there are absolutely no risks on the far left. One can take the most extreme positions, knowing full well that no challenges will be issued and no counter arguments offered. All of the risks are on the right and, thus, moderate or conservative positions are eschewed. Put bluntly, academic philosophers are afraid of their colleagues and they are afraid of what their colleagues might say about them and how that could impact their personal careers. Other arguments are implied. It is clear that credentials in a particular field carry no guarantee that opinions outside of that field would necessarily be expert. There is also the obvious point that ideology does not necessarily entail wisdom. Those who subscribe to an ideological position often find themselves caught in contradictions. For example, the ideological left decries capital punishment but is comfortable with partial-birth abortion. It attacks the traditional nuclear family as hopelessly bourgeois but simultaneously argues for gay marriage and gay adoption. “There are many kinds of families,” the left intones but wants to secure something very specific for gay couples and considers those arguing for legal partnerships to be somehow retrograde or reactionary.

One of the particularly interesting points of the book is the notion that this overall issue was anticipated by Hobbes (p. 208). Another is that some reputable academic philosophers are now supportive of the notion of downsizing or closing departments of Philosophy, given the position that the discipline has carved out for itself.

The book is lucid and to the point. The reader does not need sophisticated philosophic credentials to understand and appreciate it.

A fascinating read. Sesardic reviews noted philosophers who "drank the Kool aid" and accepted Stalin, Mao, et al. He doesn't have a solution to the conundrum of why such obviously smart men would act so foolishly. It seems that when the Ivory tower is descended, reason is left behind.

Truly worth reading. Learned much and changed my perspective.

great book, excellent style, I really had fun reading it.

An interesting study of the pressure in academic philosophy to tilt or go overboard to the left. Well done and well written. It is a good companion to Jonathan Haidt`s "The Righteous Mind."

When the intellectual content comes down to politics or economics, a number of the most highly regarded Western philosophers have serious reasoning lapses. The author makes the point repeatedly in a clearly written book.

However, to suggest that Wittgenstein was a leftist or indeed a Stalinist is misleading. Wittgenstein was an old-fashioned conservative. His yearning for Russia was a yearning for Dostoevsky and Tolstoy.