Showing posts with label historical_determinism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label historical_determinism. Show all posts
Saturday, August 14, 2010
p. 21 Nation of Bastards Farrow
What decision by the Ontario Supreme Court demonstrates the degree to which gay marriage also erases the definition of parenthood? What is the significance in the decision of the words "to allow"? Also, see here, and here.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
pp. 97-98 A New Birth of Freedom, Jaffa
Read Carl Becker's quote at the beginning of the chapter, and then Becker quote at bottom of p. 97. Now, what is critical for Becker? Also, see pp. 103-104 and realize what the Declaration is not.
Quote at beginning of chapter:
To ask whether the natural rights philosophy of the Declaration of Independence is true or false is essentially a meaningless question. -Carl Becker
Harry Jaffa. A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War (Kindle Locations 1231-1232). Kindle Edition.
Quote at beginning of chapter:
To ask whether the natural rights philosophy of the Declaration of Independence is true or false is essentially a meaningless question. -Carl Becker
Harry Jaffa. A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War (Kindle Locations 1231-1232). Kindle Edition.
*p. 93-94 & 98 & 433 A New Birth of Freedom, Jaffa
What is Calhoun's "concurrent majority"? Compare to Rousseau's "general will." How are these both related to Hegel's "cunning of history" ? (p. 94)
Relevant Passages: Calhoun's principle of the "concurrent majority"-by which certain minorities are given a veto power over actions of the government-is likewise said to transform factional strife in society into harmony and mutual advantage. As presented by Calhoun, it neutralizes and brings into unity the otherwise uncontrollable conflicts of interests, in much the same way that the abolition of private property is thought to do by Marx.
Hegel's "cunning of history," by which the rational ends of human civilization were supposedly advanced without any rational foreknowledge of those ends by the makers of the great events of history, was the tacit ground of the optimism equally of Calhoun and of Marx. Both, like Hegel, believed that they looked back upon the course of human history and were able to descry therein a rational purposefulness of which even philosophers had not hitherto been aware. They believed this was possible because, unlike their predecessors, they lived in proximity to that absolute moment when the purpose of all previous history would stand revealed. Because of this, they could be rational or scientific concerning the actions necessary to promote the completion of the historical process, and thereby the human good, as none of their predecessors could have been.
The idea of progress led Hegel, Marx, and Calhoun radically to depreciate the role of reason in all of their predecessors, whether statesmen or philosophers, to none of whom the rationality of history itself had been vouchsafed.33 Reason was truly manifest only in the absolute moment wherein history as progress was revealed. The scope and importance of reason as a means of access to truth, or of guiding human life toward human fulfillment, was thereby immeasurably degraded, except within the infinitesimal boundaries of the absolute moment. But questions were inevitably raised about that moment. By what right had the historical school exempted itself from the relativism that it attributed to everyone else?
Harry Jaffa. A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War (Kindle Locations 1572-1580). Kindle Edition.
Relevant Passages: Calhoun's principle of the "concurrent majority"-by which certain minorities are given a veto power over actions of the government-is likewise said to transform factional strife in society into harmony and mutual advantage. As presented by Calhoun, it neutralizes and brings into unity the otherwise uncontrollable conflicts of interests, in much the same way that the abolition of private property is thought to do by Marx.
Hegel's "cunning of history," by which the rational ends of human civilization were supposedly advanced without any rational foreknowledge of those ends by the makers of the great events of history, was the tacit ground of the optimism equally of Calhoun and of Marx. Both, like Hegel, believed that they looked back upon the course of human history and were able to descry therein a rational purposefulness of which even philosophers had not hitherto been aware. They believed this was possible because, unlike their predecessors, they lived in proximity to that absolute moment when the purpose of all previous history would stand revealed. Because of this, they could be rational or scientific concerning the actions necessary to promote the completion of the historical process, and thereby the human good, as none of their predecessors could have been.
The idea of progress led Hegel, Marx, and Calhoun radically to depreciate the role of reason in all of their predecessors, whether statesmen or philosophers, to none of whom the rationality of history itself had been vouchsafed.33 Reason was truly manifest only in the absolute moment wherein history as progress was revealed. The scope and importance of reason as a means of access to truth, or of guiding human life toward human fulfillment, was thereby immeasurably degraded, except within the infinitesimal boundaries of the absolute moment. But questions were inevitably raised about that moment. By what right had the historical school exempted itself from the relativism that it attributed to everyone else?
Harry Jaffa. A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War (Kindle Locations 1572-1580). Kindle Edition.
p. 91 A New Birth of Freedom, Jaffa
What is the "historical school" embraced by Marx and Calhoun, and why was it opposed by Aristotle, Jefferson, and Lincoln?
Relevant Passages: The historical school rejected Aristotle's best regime for the same reason that it had rejected natural rights-because it represented a nonhistorical judgment concerning the human condition. Aristotle, like Jefferson and Lincoln, believed that fundamental principles were timeless and placeless, which meant that they existed outside of history.
The historical school saw no need for a doctrine of the best regime, because it was confident that the historical process itself was essentially a controlled movement toward an ever more perfect human condition. In essence, this meant that the best regime was intrinsic to the historical process. It might in fact be called "the end of history," implying both senses of the word "end"-the termination of a series of events and the ultimate fulfillment of a purpose.
Personal note: Milton Friedman is also susceptible to the historical school. When Peter Robinson asked him on Uncommon Knowledge why he was always so optimistic, Friedman responded saying that each decade is better than the one that preceded it and he had no doubt that the spread of free commerce would make that continue.
Relevant Passages: The historical school rejected Aristotle's best regime for the same reason that it had rejected natural rights-because it represented a nonhistorical judgment concerning the human condition. Aristotle, like Jefferson and Lincoln, believed that fundamental principles were timeless and placeless, which meant that they existed outside of history.
The historical school saw no need for a doctrine of the best regime, because it was confident that the historical process itself was essentially a controlled movement toward an ever more perfect human condition. In essence, this meant that the best regime was intrinsic to the historical process. It might in fact be called "the end of history," implying both senses of the word "end"-the termination of a series of events and the ultimate fulfillment of a purpose.
Personal note: Milton Friedman is also susceptible to the historical school. When Peter Robinson asked him on Uncommon Knowledge why he was always so optimistic, Friedman responded saying that each decade is better than the one that preceded it and he had no doubt that the spread of free commerce would make that continue.
p. 92-93 A New Birth of Freedom, Jaffa
How did the line between pietism/triumphantism and atheism begin to fade?
Relevant Passages:
Calhoun accepted Hegel's belief that history is the unfolding of the mind of God. Belief in progress thereby came to be the essence of piety. For Calhoun, as for most of his contemporaries, the conquest of nature by modern science, making the laws of the material world subservient to human use, became the supreme manifestation of God's goodness. It became the heart of their Christianity, or of revealed religion generally. But the same facts that were the ground of Calhoun's piety were the ground of Karl Marx's atheism.30 The "high intellectual faculties" with which God had endowed man, according to Calhoun, and with which he was accomplishing the conquest of nature were the very reason why, according to Marx, God had become superfluous.
Harry Jaffa. A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War (Kindle Locations 1538-1542). Kindle Edition.
More...
While Calhoun would thank God for the ever increasing benefits resulting from the application of scientific methods to human needs, Marx would point out that men's prayers were being answered by relying on the use of their own unassisted human reason. Science could then be seen either as God's means of answering men's prayers or as the true reality that the idea of God had only obscured. As the nineteenth century progressed, as the prestige of science grew and scientific discoveries seemed more and more to he the answers to men's prayers, the presence of God seemed to become ever more identical with the presence of Science.
Relevant Passages:
Calhoun accepted Hegel's belief that history is the unfolding of the mind of God. Belief in progress thereby came to be the essence of piety. For Calhoun, as for most of his contemporaries, the conquest of nature by modern science, making the laws of the material world subservient to human use, became the supreme manifestation of God's goodness. It became the heart of their Christianity, or of revealed religion generally. But the same facts that were the ground of Calhoun's piety were the ground of Karl Marx's atheism.30 The "high intellectual faculties" with which God had endowed man, according to Calhoun, and with which he was accomplishing the conquest of nature were the very reason why, according to Marx, God had become superfluous.
Harry Jaffa. A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War (Kindle Locations 1538-1542). Kindle Edition.
More...
While Calhoun would thank God for the ever increasing benefits resulting from the application of scientific methods to human needs, Marx would point out that men's prayers were being answered by relying on the use of their own unassisted human reason. Science could then be seen either as God's means of answering men's prayers or as the true reality that the idea of God had only obscured. As the nineteenth century progressed, as the prestige of science grew and scientific discoveries seemed more and more to he the answers to men's prayers, the presence of God seemed to become ever more identical with the presence of Science.
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