When reason goes on holiday

This is an awesome book about how shit philosophers are are predicting political developments.

Its also about how shit philosophers are at catching their own biases

It questions the evidence as to whether philosophy makes us smarter


If you are into philosophy, this book is great

From the above link, I got the title and more:

When Reason Goes on Holiday: Philosophers in Politics​

Neven Sesardić​

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29502521-when-reason-goes-on-holiday#CommunityReviews

3.62
141 ratings22 reviews
Philosophers usually emphasize the importance of logic, clarity and reason. Therefore when they address political issues they will usually inject a dose of rationality in these discussions, right?

Wrong. This book gives a lot of examples showing the unexpected level of political irrationality among leading contemporary philosophers. The body of the book presents a detailed analysis of extreme leftist views of a number of famous philosophers and their occasional descent into apology for—and occasionally even active participation in—totalitarian politics. Most of these episodes are either virtually unknown (even inside the philosophical community) or have received very little attention.

The author tries to explain how it was possible that so many luminaries of twentieth-century philosophy, who invoked reason and exhibited rigor and careful thinking in their professional work, succumbed to irrationality and ended up supporting some of the most murderous political regimes and ideologies. The huge leftist bias in contemporary philosophy and its persistence over the years is certainly a factor but it is far from being the whole story.

Interestingly, the indisputably high intelligence of these philosophers did not actually protect them from descending into political insanity. It is argued that, on the contrary, both their brilliance and the high esteem they enjoyed in the profession only made them more self-confident and less cautious, thereby eventually making them blind to their betrayal of reason and the monstrosity of the causes they defended.

Is there some point to this thread other than to validate Dr. Zoid’s nonsensical posts?

pood said:

Is there some point to this thread other than to validate Dr. Zoid’s nonsensical posts?

Click to expand...

Ahh, it doesn’t validate anything of the sort! From what I gathered in Wiploc’s post, it’s actually about how reason tends to overreach. You know, reason without experience, or worse, reason without critique… that’s how you end up with a DrZoidberg situation. In other words, just another episode of DrZoidberg garggling his own foot, and somehow thinking that helps his case.

The book has a libertarian slant to it. It completely misses that the socialist philosophers of the 1920'ies to 1950'ies were reacting to the pretty extreme European liberal experiment of the 19'th century. With its own set of problems, which directly led to the rise of European socialism.

Anyhoo... the book is still funny. Even if taken out of context. And isn't wrong.

DrZoidberg said:

The book has a libertarian slant to it. It completely misses that the socialist philosophers of the 1920'ies to 1950'ies were reacting to the pretty extreme European liberal experiment of the 19'th century. With its own set of problems, which directly led to the rise of European socialism.

Anyhoo... the book is still funny. Even if taken out of context. And isn't wrong.

Click to expand...

Ah yes the great experiment with liberalism in the 19th century. Perhaps you are referring to that great humanist King Leopold II of Belgium with his efforts to bring happiness and liberalism to the people of the Congo. Or other European nations that engaged in similar activities, plus also of course The Great Game (such fun).
Charles Dickens, like us, wants to know more.

Spacetime Inhabitant said:

DrZoidberg said:

The book has a libertarian slant to it. It completely misses that the socialist philosophers of the 1920'ies to 1950'ies were reacting to the pretty extreme European liberal experiment of the 19'th century. With its own set of problems, which directly led to the rise of European socialism.

Anyhoo... the book is still funny. Even if taken out of context. And isn't wrong.

Click to expand...

Ah yes the great experiment with liberalism in the 19th century. Perhaps you are referring to that great humanist King Leopold II of Belgium with his efforts to bring happiness and liberalism to the people of the Congo. Or other European nations that engaged in similar activities, plus also of course The Great Game (such fun).
Charles Dickens, like us, wants to know more.

Click to expand...

Yes, exactly. Stuff like that. Which these socialist philosophers were very much aware about and used as an argument for the evils of an unfettered free market. Especially the Congo case was referred to a lot and was a popular argument for socialism.

While ignoring that a regulated market can also kill people by virtue if those regulations making the market inefficient. But anyhoo. That's never stopped a communist