Enlightenment Science and Its Fall, by David Harriman

[nine9s]

A short list: Richard Rorty, Jean Baudrillard, Michel Foucauld, Jacques Derrida, Lyotard...

[Beethovens7th]

Wow, great video.

Interesting about Rousseau. I never liked what I had heard about him of course, but he really sounds terrible. I'm surprised that this is pre-Kant. Why do we point more towards Kant as the source of all of our philosophical/cultural problems than we do Rousseau? It seems like Rousseau must have been just as bad, if not worse. Did Kant just take things to a more fundamental level philosophically?

[WarVideo]

There is a great lecture by John Ridpath where he sort of answers this question, in the lecture he compares John Look and Rosseau. Its called Ideas and Revolution

Locke and America; Rousseau and France

[WarVideo]

And by the way, he is terrible, you wont believe it. Not just as an intllectual but as a person.

[Beethovens7th]

He sounds like the first environmentalist.

I have held, for a long time, even before I knew about Objectivism, that environmentalism is the single most evil idea that man has ever come up with. If it continues to blend with Christianity like it has been, then this country is doomed.

[Beethovens7th]

"The first man who, having fenced in a piece of land, said 'This is mine,' and found people naive enough to believe him, that man was the true founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows: Beware of listening to this imposter; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth...

[Beethovens7th]

...itself to nobody."

I just puked in my mouth a little bit.

Wow, he was smart enough to identify property rights as the foundation of civilization, and evil enough to speak against them.

[nine9s]

"Did Kant just take things to a more fundamental level philosophically?"

Kant was more systematic and more difficult to read than those who came before, which meant people were more impressed to hear that someone had read Kant. His ideas existed way before he did; besides being an intellectual descendent of Plato and the early Christians, he said that David Hume "awoke me from my dogmatic slumber." Hume was the father of modern skepticism, who said he could not practice his philosophy....

[nine9s]

...and must put his philosophy to the side when it comes to living his life. What gave Kant the stature he has now is that he wedded reason with faith, making it "intellectually respectable" to be religious. Kant gave people the "out" they needed to have their reason and eat it too. And since "any compromise between reason and irrationality is in favor of irrationality," the philosophical road since Kant has been leading to what's now known as postmodernism.

[hume12345]

thank you for posting this and "what is wrong with modern physics". I like you find myself querying established physics. I found it interesting when you said modern physics had become a form of philosophy, as my disquiet regarding physical doctrine required clarity. thank you for providing it.

[pairunoyd]

you look like you'd cry at the drop of a hat. True?

[pairunoyd]

youre hilarious! lol. Good teachin' Bro.

[LordImmolation]

Wow, you really know how to take ideas out of context. Or read books that take ideas out of context. As much as I think rationalism has no basis, you kindve completely missed the majority of the issues.

Are you selling this book or something? Honestly please say something original for once.

[ghostofperdition2188]

Are you even capable of an original thought?

[grantsinmypants2]

So it's the novelty, and not the veracity, of a position which counts?

I'm sure if Mr. Cropper was posting videos on, say, carpentry he would be churning out new and innovative ideas. But, of course, this would require a proper philosophical outlook in order to ensure that those new ideas were of any value.

That's why he is so committed to the details of philosophy. To provide the basis for new, but more importantly, good ideas.

[chris3443]

Don't waste your time with them, Grants. Let them live their original lives with their original screen names and original denouncements of quality intellectual work.

[BanjoNaps]

Bravo! Bravo!

[jfsimard79]

I didn't know Rousseau was an arse. Didn't he write 'The Social Contract' too? I have the book but haven't read it yet.

[jfsimard79]

Mr. Cropper, you sure are blasting out a bunch of videos lately. Good to see, keeping me busy learning.