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Showing posts from April, 2013

Sam Harris, Foolish Beliefs, and The Great Books

    It has long been argued by readers of the Great Books that the reading, studying, and knowing of said Great Books can actually inoculate one from foolishness. When people speak in a novel or trendy way about the "dangerous ideas" of Sam Harris, those who have read the Great Books know that they are more foolish than dangerous. Foolish for a few reasons. These ideas are not new, they are not reasonable, and they are not provable. Harris has argued in more than one of his books that if an idea is not reasonable and not provable, then it should be rejected. He is Orwellian in his push to change the meaning of words, and merely affirm without arguing. He seems to be extremely confused on this same point many fundamentalists get wrong. To simply state something does not make it so.       So how can reading the Great Books protect us from the foolish beliefs of Sam Harris?  First and foremost, there is the stark reality that there is nothing new under the sun. For those of