 Barbara Herman responds to Will PBS Become the Protestant Broadcasting System? |
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| In defense of René Descartes. His argument implies that he was essentially neither old nor young, essentially neither rich nor poor, not male or female... but he was essentially thinking, whatever he thought he was. The audacity has to impress. Few post-moderns could offer such transgressive possibilities. Though the mind/body split has a very nasty legacy—but if you had to pick, is it clear that mind over body is worse than body over mind?—Descartes ought to be honored (and chided) for insisting on virtually unmeetable standards of rigor for thought. No Cartesian, and few Frenchmen, will worry about stem cells, or gay marriage, or the Rapture. When we are trying to know and understand, the ideas we aspire to should be able to withstand the austere discipline of skeptical doubt. Intelligent Design is just another good idea? Not a chance. So while, alas, on the crackpot scale, the theory that the guys in Washington aim to replace science with faith gets a "1", on this issue, at least, Descartes is on our side.
Barbara Herman is a professional friend of the mind and Professor of Philosophy at UCLA Back To "Will PBS Become the Protestant Broadcasting System?" |
the other experts say
Earl Katz, Executive Director of Public Interest Pictures, says, “They believe that every man is a sinner. Only God and His son Jesus Christ are perfect. Laws created by man are not valid in their eyes. Biblical law is the only true law.” Read on
Screenwriter Marilyn Levy writes, "Because the government’s “theories” seem so ill-conceived and so lacking in empirical evidence, we liberal, fact-based, godless intellectuals also overindulge in misperceptions. It’s hard to accept that fumbling, bumbling Bush and Company can out-organize and outsmart us. But they do it over and over again... Read on
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