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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   32279 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 17, 2023

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I’d say the root of the Enlightenment is epistemological. “What do I know, and why do I think I know it?”

You phrase it as a question, but by the time the French Revolution arrives, they've very clearly arrived at answers, at single sources of truth, at dogma and crystalized belief-systems.

It’s also materially useful, both for its influence on the scientific method, and for giving us the most practical developments in sociology.

What contributions precisely are we thanking sociology for? How confident are you that those contributions are net-positive?

We don’t know how to solve all our problems, but we can insulate against the most obvious failures, and iterate towards a better solution.

That's not the lesson Enlightenment ideologues drew, though, which is why the centuries from then till now have been defined by subsequent Enlightenment revolutions and their disastrous consequences. They continued to insist that they do know how to solve all our problems, and any remaining problems are the result of bad people who need to be removed, right down to the present day. I agree with you that insulating against obvious failures and iteration toward solutions is a much superior option! The Enlightenment observably argues otherwise, though.

Mistake not the implementors for the architects, though. I think you could write a flipped version of your narrative where it’s the Americans tearing down Chesterton’s fence while the French stick to high-minded Liberté, égalité, fraternité.

I'm not sure I follow. How would this flipped narrative work? The results are still there, and it seems to me that they defy reinterpretation.

Dogmatism is adaptive. Just not as adaptive, in the mid to long run, as skepticism.

On that, at least, we agree.

I’m thanking Enlightenment sociology for developments in democracy, especially consent of the governed and the idea of social contracts. Those are more valuable than pretty much any social or political theory from the subsequent centuries.

I think the bloody revolutions are what you get when you combine Enlightenment thought with a giant selection effect for violence. Rationalism and skepticism are really good at generating and propagating ideas. They’re pretty bad at getting people to kill for one. Dogmatism is much better at that. So by the time you can call it Revolution, most followers will have crystallized on the idea, rather than abstractly reasoned into it.

The Enlightenment provides fuel, but it’s awfully tricky to make fire without heat.

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