Awatmath.1622 net.space utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!watmath!Rick Sun Jan 31 06:00:51 1982 Tech vs Humanist Frankly, I really didn't mean to start all of this... My apologies to all on net.space, and my absolute last word on the subject. First, it should be pointed out that no one ever claimed that ignorance of the humanities was bliss, or at least not harmful. It was claimed that no major moral or social problems have ever been solved by that rather unfortunate group that describe themselves as `social engineers'. I'm still waiting for a counter example. The point that was made was that typically, merchants and technologists solved the problems because *they saw a social need*. The typical action of the humanist to the problem was either to ignore it, or to justify it (read Aristotle on the subject of slavery, for instance). There are some prominent thinkers in the humanities whose works deserve attention. Friedman is an excellent example. So is Easton. Toynbee and Hobbes are first-rate reading, and a must for anyone who wishes to understand history. However ( again with the notable exception of Milton Friedman ) the current rather sad collection of scholars that dominate the thinking of the humanities can provide us with no solutions to our current problems. Rather than attempting to increase human freedom, the current intellectual fashion is to curtail it. Rather than attempting to expand and increase human wealth, the current fashion is the age of limits. And rather than attempting to master the basics of the technologies that have taken us from an impoverished, rural culture to the mightiest, wealthiest and most knowledgeable society this planet has ever seen, there is a popular intellectual fashion to argue that technological solutions to technological problems should not be pursued, because *that would create a privileged class on whom the ignorant would be independent*. There are few sentiments that are more ominous than this war cry of the new barbarians. Sorry I can't be cheerier about these characters, but most of us have seen far too much of the Naders, the Ehrlichs, the Fondas and the Trudeaus to have many illusions about humanists in the 1980s. Rick. ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.