1. David Brooks: "That belief, championed by John Locke, or a story we tell about Locke, paved the way for human equality, pluralism, democracy, capitalism...." I like that "a story we tell about Locke."https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/opinion/renaissance-right-gop.html …
-
-
5. As used by people like Brooks & Pinker "the Enlightenment" is a myth: a tribalist myth in fact since it involves covering up the history of those killed & dispossessed in the name of Enlightenment values. It's identity politics for elite centrists.
Show this thread -
6. What's also interesting about neo-Whig celebrations of Enlightenment is not just negative stuff that gets left out but also things like the anti-militarism of Adam Smith or the broader republican critique of luxury
Show this thread -
7. One way to understand the Enlightenment is to realize it predated the democratic revolutions of the 19th century & certainly the anti-imperialist revolutions of the 20th. Those revolutions borrowed from Enlightenment ideas but also radically transformed them
Show this thread -
8. One of the genuine great achievements of Enlightenment was critique of historical mythmaking (see Paine on Bible). It's a betrayal of that achievement to set up Enlightenment thinkers as Idols, timeless oracles of wisdom whose own historicity is avoided.
Show this thread -
9. Again, this is not to say there isn't great stuff in Locke. Like the epistemology or this:https://twitter.com/_HelenLindberg_/status/985658673329524741 …
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
Wait wait wait. You're implying history isn't a glorious march of progress to the now? And that things will get better and better as we move forward? *shock*
-
It's so surprising, my whig fell off.
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
Yet what is truer to Enlightenment thought than a willful erasure of the preconditions for its own existence?
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
-
-
@DrIbram is one of several who are remarkably good on this topicThanks. 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.