2/It's true that many of the people we call "Enlightenment" thinkers - Kant, Hume, etc. - said racist things. But does that mean those racist things are part of "the Enlightenment"? Pinker et al. would say "no".
-
Show this thread
-
3/Now, that argument - i.e. that "the Enlightenment" represents a set of good ideas that we moderns get to pick and choose - has a flavor of "No True Scotsman" to it. It's not fair to defend an ideology by limiting its definition to the subset that we feel is defensible!
6 replies 2 retweets 43 likesShow this thread -
4/But it IS a worthwhile exercise to distill good ideas from historical intellectual movements, while discarding the bad ones. Ideas should not be package deals. We should get to choose which lessons we learn and which we repudiate. Otherwise, philosophy becomes religion.
5 replies 17 retweets 96 likesShow this thread -
5/So Pinker et al. SHOULD get to define "The Enlightenment" to exclude the racism of Kant, Hume, etc., as long as they make it clear that this is what they're doing. And doing this should disallow Pinker et al. from making arguments-from-authority.
2 replies 2 retweets 42 likesShow this thread -
6/Now, it ALSO might be the case that even the Enlightenment ideas that Pinker praises might be inextricably bound up with racism. But I don't think Bouie (or Heer) has made that case successfully, yet.
5 replies 1 retweet 27 likesShow this thread -
This Tweet is unavailable.
-
Jamelle wrote: "Race as we understand it—a biological taxonomy that turns physical difference into relations of domination—is a product of the Enlightenment."
4 replies 0 retweets 4 likes -
Replying to @Noahpinion @UpsetPatterns and
Now, if you define "the Enlightenment" as a historical time period, or as the sum of all statements by Kant, Hume, etc., then this might be true. But if you define "the Enlightenment" as the subset of ideas Pinker advances, then this also might be true, but needs more evidence.
4 replies 0 retweets 7 likes -
This Tweet is unavailable.
-
I dealt with this in my thread. I think it's a good thing to be able to pick and choose what we like from idea-packages, as long as we make clear that that's what we're doing, and avoid argument-from-authority.
3 replies 0 retweets 7 likes
If you are picking and choosing then why call your package The Enlightenment (a name used for something else for many decades). If this is just a branding exercise, come up with a new label.
-
-
I guess. I think in practice, most of us end up endlessly recycling and redefining old labels ("liberalism", "socialism", "Keynesianism", etc. etc.). It can get irritating, but I think it's pretty standard practice.
0 replies 1 retweet 6 likesThanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.