Things have been busy, but at some point I hope to stop just linking and start actually writing something. In the meantime, why not link to something profound?
Enlightenment is man’s leaving his self-caused immaturity. Immaturity is the incapacity to use one’s own understanding without the guidance of another. Such immaturity is self-caused if its cause is not lack of intelligence, but by lack of determination and courage to use one’s intelligence without being guided by another. The motto of enlightenment is therefore: Sapere aude! Have courage to use your own intelligence!
— Immanuel Kant, in “What Is Enlightenment?”, 1784
Is it too cynical to think that the anti-science attitude on the part of our government is part of a bigger picture, a roll-back of rationality itself? Shakespeare’s Sister examines the evidence, and concludes that it’s not too cynical at all.
Thank you for the link, S. An endorsement of that post from you is especially gratifying. 🙂
It’s not a stretch at all in my opinion. In fact, given the driving forces behind the recent attacks on science, it seems clear that the rational world itself is the real target.
There is a really interesting book that examines a previous time in which matters of faith continually trumped the requirements of reason – the historian in question links that rise of doctrinaire thinking to the death of the Greek intellectual tradition in the Roman Empire and the hastening of the Dark Ages in Europe. The book is called “The Closing of the Western Mind : The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason” by Charles Freeman – perhaps someone knows more about it than I do?
The editorial and reader reviews on Amazon.com include some comments by the author, Charles Freeman. Here is an excerpt (with emphasis added by me):
* Consider the role of Plato’s philosophy in the origins of 20th century totalitarianism — the thesis put forth in Karl Popper’s The Open Society and Its Enemies.