This is a worthwhile investment of your time, but you will need to put on your thinking cap. If you want to shorten the time spent, fast forward to the discussion among the three scholars.
THE MEANING OF LIFE
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Category Archives: Intellectuals
PUBLIC INTELLECTUALS
Alan Jacobs posted his list of top five “public intellectuals.”
Alan’s choices are good. If we are going to take both the words seriously in “public intellectual,” there are others who are not out in public as much as they used to be (Chomsky) or have recently died (Eco). My “on deck” list to complement Alan’s:
Paul Krugman
Thomas Friedman
David Brooks
Fareed Zacharia
Neil deGrasse Tyson
CRAZY PHILOSOPHERS, CRAZY PEOPLE
I am reading John Frame’s massive, A History of Western Philosophy and Theology. Today, I came upon this dandy description Schopenhauer made of Hegel:
“Hegel was a flat-headed, insipid, nauseating, illiterate charlatan, who reached the pinnacle of audacity in scribbling together and dishing up the craziest mystifying nonsense.”
THE DEATH OF EXPERTISE
Important new book which I will be reviewing later. For now, here’s a four minute summary of some of the themes:
http://www.providencejournal.com/news/20170225/experts-are-enemy-in-our-know-it-all-culture
CONSERVATIVES IN ACADEMIA
Nicholas Kristof is a self-described “progressive” who goes where the evidence takes him. With a son who is headed into a lifetime of scholarship, this got my attention:
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/opinion/sunday/a-confession-of-liberal-intolerance.html?_r=0&referer=
CHRIS MOORE
Our youngest son, Chris, is planning on a career of scholarship and teaching at the university level. He has majors in classics and philosophy. Here is a picture of him a few weeks back getting early admittance into Phi Beta Kappa at the University of Texas.
CAN INTELLECTUALS BE TRUSTED?
True brilliance on display:
CRUCIAL DISTINCTIONS
It seems we are living during a legitimate epoch change. I reviewed a book on this topic and here is terrific summary of the issue:
CRISIS OF DOUBT: AN INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR
Here is my interview with the author. Between radio, TV, and text, I have interviewed well over 100 people. This was one of the most meaningful for me:
IS JESUS GOD?
The man in the picture is biblical scholar and agnostic, Bart Ehrman. His story of leaving the Christian faith is well-known. His books are widely read and vigorously debated.
In my own correspondence with Ehrman I found him quite candid about doubt. He admitted that how one chooses to look at the evidence for the Bible’s reliability greatly influences what conclusion one comes to. For one scholar who came to a wholly different conclusion than Ehrman: