” As a result, intellectuals are free from one of the most rigorous constraints facing other occupations: external standards. An engineer will ultimately be judged on whether the structures he designs hold up, a businessman on whether he makes money, and so on. By contrast, the ultimate test of an intellectual’s ideas is whether other intellectuals “find those ideas interesting, original, persuasive, elegant, or ingenious. There is no external test.” If the intellectuals are like-minded, as they often are, then the validity of an idea depends on what those intellectuals already believe. This means that an intellectual’s ideas are tested only by internal criteria and “become sealed off from feedback from the external world of reality.”
An intellectual’s reputation, then, depends not on whether his ideas are verifiable but on the plaudits of his fellow intellectuals. “
Brilliant........no, not the intellectuals....Sowell ;-)
Not only brilliant, but Sowell’s focus is laserlike. This is the heart of their power. Intellectuals are the high priests of their religion.
I had the pleasure to hear Walter Williams interview Sowell about this book. I was out of town on the road; it was months before I remembered to check on it in the web. Glad I did.