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Tag Archives: culture wars
The Post-rational Discourse
Henry over at Crooked Timber has posted Centrism as Tribalism on how centrists can be just as strident and aggressive as the partisans. This is indeed an excellent point! I am especially fond of it because it highlights something I have been saying, that the breakdown in rationality is systemic to our ethics. Henry [...]
Posted in topical Also tagged Christianity, Enlightenment, ethics, irrationalism, Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, philosophy, sentimentalism Leave a comment
The Futility of the Culture Wars
[Michael Bérubé has written a provocative essay on US Culture Studies, which he has taken onto Crooked Timber. This is a lightly edited version of a comment I left on the article.]
I can understand the reaction of the Cultural Studies folks, but I really think they should and will be grateful. Your point about [...]
Posted in topical Also tagged culture studies, Enlightenment, ethics, John Gray, religion, theology Leave a comment
Brooks on the Enlightenment
In yesterday’s New York Times David Brooks proposed made an interesting suggestion.
My second guess is philosophical. Kristol wrote in a time when intellectuals saw themselves as heirs to the Enlightenment, by which they meant the French Enlightenment. They put their faith in a rational elite and a moral avant-garde that would champion justice, virtue and [...]
Posted in topical Also tagged conservatism, Enlightenment, French Revolution, Jane Austen, liberalism Leave a comment
The Summer of Hate
Paul Krugman reports on a very sad state of affairs.
A curious personal observation: I’m getting more crazy hate mail than I have in years, maybe since 2004. But this time the character of the hate mail has changed. [...]
It’s not too hard to understand. Presumably it’s coming from talk radio; I assume the ranters are [...]
Posted in topical Also tagged conservatism, hate, irrationalism, Michael Behe, Paul Krugman, progessives Leave a comment
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