Posted on 12/26/2003 4:58:06 PM PST by Federalist 78
Have you read "The Closing of the American Mind" Federalist 78?
Didn't read it, but I remember it was favorably reviewed in the conservative press and probably prompted, Review 'The Closing of the American Heart' by Ronald H Nash
I think Jefferson and Adams were right.
Great that Plato believed in God. But that doesn't make him centered in all his philosophy. Jim Bakker believes in God too.
I've only read about what he wrote, so I'll have to take your word on his knowledge of St. Paul and the Law -- you're probably right, though. It's often true that those who "hate best" also make it a point to know the most about what they hate. (A good example being that certain class of "lapsed-Catholic anti-Catholics.")
I think Nietzsche's position is probably best described as a grand exposition of the logical end of atheism. The real beauty of his writings stems from his being on the ragged edge of insanity -- which made him immune to the shame and horror that prevents "lesser" atheists from taking their position to its ultimate conclusion.
Oh well, sloppiness is a way of life for some people, and it's reflected in their writing.
Jefferson goes up several notches in my book.
Ya man and your living in the world he divined and did not bring about. In truth it is you who are the dunce.
"Nobody is 100% accurate with their assessments and with their recommendations; but, some people are 99% dead-wrong with theirs."
Lev Navrozov NewsMax.com columnist and journalist. One of the most brilliant minds in the world, according to many distinguished Westerners and Russians. Published over 1,000 columns and articles on the destiny of civilization, world culture, foreign policy, strategy, defense, and intelligence work since his emigration from Russia in 1972. Winner of the Albert Einstein Prize for outstanding intellectual achievements. Author of The Education of Lev Navrozov (Harper & Row, 1975), compared by the reviewers to Mark Twain, Proust, Orwell, Voltaire, and Dostoyevsky. More than twenty of his articles are in the United States Congressional Record. navlev@cloud9.net
Thinkers have different places in the intellectual universe. Darwin may be fine in some sphere of biology and its development, but not be a good guide to things outside that sphere. I don't know whether he ever claimed to be any sort of moral teacher or guide to life. Even if he did, we don't have to.
Nietzsche is a different case -- a truly dangerous thinker. But it wouldn't hurt to remember how he grew out of Victorian conditions. When life becomes safe and predictable, some people inevitably seek danger. It's not something one should form one's philosophy of life around, but Nietzsche is a good reminder that if we don't have real challenges, we seek more powerful artificial sensations and end up destroying ourselves.
Navrozov wrote a fine autobiography about growing up in the Soviet Union, but he's a very eccentric and erratic thinker, and something of a narcissist. His writing doesn't always have a focus, and he throws himself into pointless feuds with other writers. His son, also a writer, shares some of his father's traits.
If Jesus knew how to write Hebrew, then why don't we have any of his writings? Surely his early disciples would have presevered whatever they could have of the writings of the man they thought was the Messiah.
But perhaps the reason there are no writings is because he didn't know how to read or write Hebrew.
We can conjecture about a lot of things and talk about the possibility of this and that. But that is quite different from stating something as fact.
A great book, but the trouble with this paragraph is that it isn't accurate.
The Closing of the American Mind doesn't argue that Americans have become narrow because we've ignored Plato. The book argues that the educational crisis that has overtaken America is due to German relativist philosophy which has undermined the status of reason within Western society.
This crisis isn't something that can be overcome by a new set of priorities. It will require a philosophical defense of reason and a broadside attack on Weber and Nietzsche.
Never hurts to try.
Happy Holidays just the same.
True christianity is allowing people to give out of a true sense of compassion, not compulsion.
Very well put.
By the way...the more I read of Plato, the fruitier I think him.
Authors Most Frequently Cited By The Founders Of The United States Founders didn't think much of him either.
1 St. Paul (Biblical) 9.00%
12 Cicero (Classical) 1.20%
26 Plato (Classical) 0.50%
restoringourheritage.com • Restoring America's Founding Dream
And I see how you react to facts and the need for correction in thinking.
Hardly Socratic of you.
Not sure that Jesus would ever have written anything religious or philisophical that he or his disciples would have preserved; Jesus taught using oration...but that doesn't mean he COULDN'T write.. The writing job would be for his disciples years later who were communicating to believers miles away.
His writing doesn't always have a focus,
Until your comment, I though his article was a rough draft that was accidentally posted.
No, that is one point I am not Socratic in. Socrates despised the passions, and for that some Jewish thinkers disrespect the Platonized divinity that courses from Augustine to Kant.
But both Socrates and and I need correction in thinking. On that point we have been best of friends.
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