... that our intellectual climate is such that so many merely scientific thinkers so consistently and so brazenly offer up their lame insights on the most momentous of topics does indeed constitute an essential aspect of our present barbarism. The attempt to understand the entirety of human existence in biological terms has less of philosophical seriousness about it, and more of professional pride. We would find ourselves in a very nearly analogous situation if a conclave of plumbers began writing books, asserting that water was the essential element in all nature, that our thoughts could best be understood as so many conduits to our actions, and that society itself is nothing other than a complex structure of pipes, aqueducts, and irrigatory canals, sending and receiving every life-giving benefit. Such a mode of philosophizing might be enjoyable for a while, but it could never be persuasive, and it could never be right.
Yes, and while Fodor and others are criticized for questioning Darwinism because they are not scientists, no one thinks to criticize Dawkins, Wilson, et al. for having no discernible philosophical or theological expertise.
If only it were the plumbers whose limited sensibility placed us at risk. But the plumbers are saints and geniuses compared to the real monster: the international corporations, plumbing or otherwise.
ReplyDeleteAnything nonhuman is...nonhuman.
Well, plumbers usually know how to do plumbing. International bankers often seem to know banking not as well we would expect.
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