“A disciple of Isaiah Berlin, whom he called in a moving essay “a hero of our time,” Vargas Llosa is a strong defender of “negative liberty,” the individual’s freedom from all forms of coercion, to the point of libertarianism.”
It’s a long way out of socialist and revolutionary solidarity, which continually occupies the South American mind. One more revolution:
“Literature, Vargas Llosa often suggests, is a way to live out harmlessly the fantasies of power, purity, and transgression that reason prevents us from enacting in real life.”
Here’s a quote from John Locke:
“7. What is meant by enthusiasm. This I take to be properly enthusiasm, which, though founded neither on reason nor divine revelation, but rising from the conceits of a warmed or overweening brain, works yet, where it once gets footing, more powerfully on the persuasions and actions of men than either of those two, or both together: men being most forwardly obedient to the impulses they receive from themselves; and the whole man is sure to act more vigorously where the whole man is carried by a natural motion. For strong conceit, like a new principle, carries all easily with it, when got above common sense, and freed from all restraint of reason and check of reflection, it is heightened into a divine authority, in concurrence with our own temper and inclination.”
Related On This Site:: A Few Thoughts On Isaiah Berlin’s “Two Concepts Of Liberty”…
Adam Kirsch At The Prospect: ‘America’s Superman’…Fukuyama has turned from Hegel to Darwin: Adam Kirsch Reviews Francis Fukuyama’s New Book At The City Journal: ‘The Dawn Of Politics’…Adam Kirsch In The New Republic On Slavoj Zizek: The Deadly Jester…Slavoj Zizek In The New Republic: Responding To Adam Kirsch
Leo Strauss was concerned about making a way out of Reason, and the modern problem: .Update And Repost- From YouTube: Leo Strauss On The Meno-More On The Fact/Value Distinction?’
Can Kant do all that heavy lifting…what are some of the dangers of Kantian reason?: From Bryan Magee’s Talking Philosophy On Youtube: Geoffrey Warnock On Kant…A Few Thoughts On Isaiah Berlin’s “Two Concepts Of Liberty” …
…Peter Singer discusses Hegel and Marx…From Philosophy And Polity: ‘Historicism In German Political Theory’
How does Natural Law Philosophy deal with these problems, and those of knowledge?
Chris, you’ve done it again. That’s a great article by Adam Kirsh. I first learnt something substantial about Roger Casement when I read Adam Hochchild’s masterful work ‘King Leopold’s Ghost’ which is a real eye-opener about what really happened in the Belgium Congo and the complicity of the European elites.
Malcolm, thanks for stopping by. One real eye-opener for me was learning a bit about Spanish history, and the incestuous and calculating nature of royal marriage, and the constant land-brokering and horse-trading done by a small group of interested players from the top-down in European history.