Full essay here. ‘The state appears in Pinker’s history only when it confines itself to the limited role that he believes is proper, and enlightenment figures as the rebellion of intelligent individuals against the state’s attempt to exceed its assigned role.’ Well, many Enlightenment figures went about creating the intellectual foundations of the modern State, […]
Reason post here, which has a link to challenge Pinker’s claim that violence actually declining (any other thoughts welcome). Related On This Site: What about a World Leviathan…instead of the humanist/liberal wishes for global governance no matter how ineffective?: At Bloggingheads Steven Pinker Discusses War And Thomas Hobbes… Simon Blackburn Reviews Steven Pinker’s “The Blank Slate: […]
Relevant diavlog here. In the discussion, Pinker borrows from Thomas Hobbes’ “Leviathan,” to put forth the argument that one reason for what Pinker claims is an overall decline in violence (at least recently, since 1945) is the development of the modern State. It has the lion’s share of power, and puts its own citizens at […]
Full review here. The 1st and last paragraphs of Blackburn’s review: ‘When the hoary old question of nature versus nurture comes around, sides form quickly. And as Leavis once remarked, whenever this is so, we can suspect that the differences have little to do with thinking. Still, the question certainly obsesses thinkers, and crops up in various […]
Full essay here. Pinker attacks ”dignity” arguments put foward by the President’s Council On Bio-Ethics in Human Dignity And Bioethics. He’s not impressed with the set of largely conservative ideas he finds there, a few of which are rooted in Catholic doctrine. Who’s putting them foward? “…a group of intellectual activists, many of whom had jumped from […]
Here is a link to Stephen Pinker’s presentation at Google. Here is a post I put up recently about Bob Wright’s idealism during one of his diavlogs. It seems that Pinker is applying some of the ideas of physics or spatio-temporal thought to the rules of grammar and language. It would be an excellent lesson […]
Review here. Bailey reviews two new books on anthropology, one by Jared Diamond, the other by Marlene Zuk. Inevitably questions of political philosophy arise: ‘Modern anthropological research may be settling the great debate between the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes and the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Was the state of nature a “war of every man […]
——————- How to separate reasonable environmentalism from the authoritarian impulses, the Malthusians and various other people who “know” how many people is enough? Now that environmentalism is a primary focus in our schools, it’s probably worth thinking about. Reason’s Hit & Run piece here. Related On This Site: Jonathan Adler At The Atlantic: ‘A Conservative’s […]
Full piece here. Dalrymple: ‘The search for the pure guiding light of reason, uncontaminated by human passion or metaphysical principles that go beyond all possible evidence, continues, however; and recently, an epidemic rash of books has declared success, at least if success consists of having slain the inveterate enemy of reason, namely religion. The philosophers […]
Full piece here. That’s Thomas Nagel’s (wikipedia) new book ‘Mind And Cosmos.‘ Some drama at the link: ‘For the bargain-basement atheism of our day, it is not enough that there be no God: there must be only matter. Now Nagel’s new book fulfills his old warning. A mob is indeed forming, a mob of materialists, of […]
