-Tony Daniel at The Federalist on Anthony Kronman’s new book ‘The Assault On American Excellence‘
Hmmm…:
‘So here’s a second opinion on Kronman’s diagnosis: The disease that afflicts the American academy is not caused by the pathogen of egalitarianism from without. It is a cancer produced by the excesses of analytic philosophy and structuralist thinking within.’
I really like this line (could be more of a writer problem…writers can become reclusive weirdos, but still telling nonetheless):
‘It says something that the most normal professor I encountered in graduate school was the extremely odd and reclusive aesthetician and novelist William H. Gass.’
Here’s a somewhat similar vein of thought. From friesian.com:
Although Anglo-American philosophy tended to worship at the feet of science, the drift of academia to the left has led to characteristically totalitarian political attacks on science itself — this despite the leftist program to use “climate science” to impose a Sovietized command economy on energy and the tactic to smear climate skeptics, i.e. “Deniers,” through associaton with Creationism or Neo-Nazi Holocaust denial. None of that has stopped the “post-modern” move…’
Alas, this blog has been writing about such issues for over a decade, and I’ve been thinking about them for more than two decades: Should You Bother To Get A Liberal Arts Education? Allan Bloom, Camille Paglia and Anthony Kronman
Repost-From Scientific Blogging: ‘The Humanities Are In Crisis-Science Is Not’
Click here for a quite a varied discussion of Allan Bloom’s surprise 1987 bestseller: ‘The Closing Of The American Mind‘
Related On This Site:
–Heather McDonald At The WSJ: ‘ The Humanities Have Forgotten Their Humanity’
–Repost-From Darwinian Conservatism: ‘Nietzsche–Aristocratic Radical or Aristocratic Liberal?’
-Update And Repost: ‘A Few Thoughts On Allan Bloom–The Nietzsche / Strauss Connection’
– Various Products Of Radical Reason And Reactions To Them- John Gray At The New Statesman
Other links for your pleasure:
-Via Triggernometry: Can We Stop Terrorism and What Do Islamists Want? But what do they really want? Conflicted, Thomas Small and Aiman Dean’s podcast seems worth a listen.
-Peter Boghossian and James Lindsay at The City Journal: ‘Conversing In An Age Of Accusation‘. It’s something, anyways.
I’ve often thought that many New Atheists, liberal idealists, progressives and radicals overlook the inherent dangers of human ignorance, the need to believe and the semi-permanence of people committed to radical ideology. The sciences and social sciences are being asked to bear a tremendous pressure as a result. Sure, religious believers disagree with, and have a long record of persecuting free-thinkers, scientists and natural philosophers, but actual terrorists and radicals are being normalized under the banner of liberal idealism. I doubt this bodes well.
Whenever and wherever there are thoughtful, reasonable people, I support them: Dog Park Blues-Link To A James Lindsay Interview
-A bit of sad news from Jordan Peterson. The man’s very honest about that which it can’t be easy to be honest.