tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33818852.post3243680842239950550..comments2023-10-21T23:57:46.155-04:00Comments on Wheat Among Tares: Unabated Curiosityterrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12399706958844399216noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33818852.post-15792478039248972782007-12-07T07:56:00.000-05:002007-12-07T07:56:00.000-05:00I'm not entirely sure. The humanist movement over ...I'm not entirely sure. The humanist movement over here has been quietly incubating for a couple of centuries now, so we tend to get more David Attenborough types - distinguished elder scientists who are rationalists. I get the impression that, in America, "rationalism" is a philosophy that appeals mostly to radicals.<BR/><BR/>Malthus was probably a product of the corresponding phase in Britain. The thing about radicals is that, once they've broken with the establishment in one respect, they quite often go the whole hog and end up holding an array of unusual views. For example, Bertrand Russell's thoughts on sexual liberation were... non-standard, shall we say.<BR/><BR/>I think that's settled down a bit over the last century - the scariest we've got at the moment is Dawkins, whose sole crime is that he's overly passionate about demolishing fluffy thinking.<BR/><BR/>I know what you mean about rabbit trails - I came across that Is/Ought wikipedia article during a similar research frenzy :) The internet makes that sort of intellectual butterflying far too easy.Lifewishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07133804300464048756noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33818852.post-35014944528261273042007-12-06T18:06:00.000-05:002007-12-06T18:06:00.000-05:00Lifewish...that wasn't really my point. The rabbi...Lifewish...that wasn't really my point. The rabbit trails I follow was my main premise. <BR/><BR/>I never really got to investigating the whole British Rationalist thing because I was off on another tangent before I spent more time thinking about it.<BR/><BR/>What's your take? Does Britian seem more likely to produce a certain "type" of thinker?terrihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12399706958844399216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33818852.post-55768252250966541962007-12-06T17:48:00.000-05:002007-12-06T17:48:00.000-05:00Malthus proposed that the humans had to necessaril...<I>Malthus proposed that the humans had to necessarily be wiped out by famine, war, and disease in order to have a balanced population and not overpopulate the land.</I><BR/><BR/>This may be uncomfortably close to the truth. I remember reading a survey (can't find it now) that showed a strong correlation between wars in Africa and population density. The wars were acting as a population control - once an area could no longer provide food for all its occupants, the slightest excuse could lead to open conflict.<BR/><BR/><I>He fought against poor laws in England as a way to reduce poverty. If poor people can't feed themselves and perish, then there is no poverty.</I><BR/><BR/>Hume's <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Is-ought_problem" REL="nofollow">is/ought problem</A> says that there's no way of reasoning logically from a statement about how things are to a statement about what you should do about it. For there to be an "ought" in the conclusion of an argument, there has to be an "ought" in one of the premises.<BR/><BR/>In this case, Malthus has managed to get from a statement about how the world is ("population outstrips available resources") to a statement about how it should be ("we ought to let the poor die off"). Even without seeing his logic, we can therefore infer that he's talking out of his ass, or at least that his conclusion is only one of many possibilities.<BR/><BR/>For example, in the case of Africa, a more constructive solution would be to fund women's education programmes. Education tends to greatly reduce a society's birthrate in the long term, so this could permanently reduce the population pressure, eliminating the impetus to war.<BR/><BR/>I guess what I'm getting at is: speaking as a British rationalist, please don't take this guy as a representative sample.Lifewishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07133804300464048756noreply@blogger.com