First off, glad to know that Relativism is dead - according to Silber and
this writer, there is absolute truth - GREAT - just what we have all been
waiting for! How did Silber ever become the Chancellor of BU?
Sodom
Bill Roh
Wade T. Smith wrote:
> Well, you know....
>
> Silber is worth some looking up, if you like the unique personality....
>
> ________________________
>
> For philosophers, criticism and a call to service
>
> Gathering focuses on world problems
>
> By Scott Allen, Globe Staff, 08/11/98
>
> The last few decades have been lonely years for philosophers, a time
> when the world sometimes teetered on the brink of nuclear war and they
> seemed preoccupied with linguistic hairsplitting. Philosophers nearly
> became the intellectual equivalent of one hand clapping: Nobody heard
> them.
>
> But yesterday, at the world's largest-ever gathering of philosophers,
> they declared themselves back in the hunt for truth and goodness, and
> eager to help a fast-changing technological society solve problems
> from teaching values to children to coping with religious extremists.
>
> The more than 3,000 philosophers heard the call to service, but also
> got a harsh critique from their host, Boston University chancellor
> John Silber, who said they have themselves to blame for their
> isolation. Silber charged that feminists, Marxists, and others had
> turned philosophy into ``an assault on reason.''
>
> Ever since Friedrich Nietzsche declared that God is dead, Silber
> argued, philosophers have been moving away from the idea that
> universal truth exists, turning people's most closely held beliefs
> into mere opinions. This slippery slope, in turn, leads to each
> interest group claiming that no one outside the group can understand
> their experience, Silber said.
>
> ``These positions, to paraphrase a remark attributed to Orwell, are
> nonsense so bad that only an intellectual could believe them,'' said
> Silber, at the opening of the weeklong World Congress of Philosophy at
> the Marriott Hotel in Copley Place.
>
> Silber's main target, feminists, replied that Silber had caricatured
> their efforts to combat sexism, which they said was a common tactic to
> put women down. ``This is the kind of thing you might expect at a
> political rally,'' said Phyllis Rooney of Oakland University.
>
> The World Congress, the first in five years and the last of this
> century, in some ways defied stereotypes of philosophers. Yes, there
> were lots of wise, gray-bearded men, including a couple of dead
> ringers for Karl Marx, but there were also Indian women in saris,
> African women with corn-rowed hair and middle-aged people wearing
> fanny packs on their waists.
>
> The vast gathering, which took six universities as well as the United
> Nations more than two years to pull together, looked like a bonanza to
> Julian Baggini, fresh in from London with copies of his publication,
> The Philosophers' Magazine. ``This is our big chance to break into the
> US market,'' he said.
>
> Others, such as Sherry Wieder, saw the conference as a chance to even
> scores. Standing in front of a poster of mustachioed
> turn-of-the-century psychiatrist named Emil Kraepelin, Wieder
> explained how Sigmund Freud unjustly overshadowed Kraepelin, who first
> diagnosed schizophrenia and manic depression.
>
> Wieder said the International Kraepelin Society planned to build a
> Hall of Fame of Psychology and Philosophy near Poughkeepsie, N.Y.,
> where, among other things, Kraepelin's true legacy could be explored.
>
> But the core business of the conference revolved around this year's
> theme, ``Philosophy Educating Humanity,'' meant to symbolize the
> return of many philosophers to engagement with the pressing issues of
> the late 20th century.
>
> ``What are truth, goodness, and beauty? How should people live with
> wealth and poverty? War and peace?'' asked Robert Neville, dean of
> Boston University's School of Theology. ``Only philosophy, I say, can
> raise our children to address these crises of wisdom.''
>
> Alan Olson of Boston University, director of the conference organizing
> committee, said from World War II until recently, philosophy was
> dominated by dry analytical works that ``just deal with clarity of
> propositions ... and are not really concerned with anything outside
> itself.'' As a result, the Cold War came and went, and philosophers
> were on the sidelines.
>
> Now, said Olson, ``analytical philosophy has found its soul,'' and an
> increasing number of philosophers are rejecting major philosophical
> themes such as relativism, where there is no such thing as absolute
> truth.
>
> The organizers underscored the theme of greater relevance with marquee
> speakers such as Alasdair MacIntyre of Duke University, a scholar of
> Marx who came to believe God exists, and Brown University's Martha
> Nussbaum, an influential thinker on the need for a classical liberal
> education. Organizers also emphasized engagement with their suggestion
> that US high schools offer more philosophy courses.
>
> Yersu Kim of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
> Organization told the group that the conference itself was a step
> toward more relevance. The meeting ``signals the return of a
> significant segment of the world philosophical community ... to the
> classical mission of philosophy ... enlightenment,'' he said.
>
> However, in the quiet, library-like exhibition hall of the conference,
> one observer cautioned against expecting too much. Surrounded by the
> works of Ayn Rand, Jean Paul Sartre, and other luminaries in his
> Scholar's Choice book nook, Loren Dykstra said philosophers have a
> hard time agreeing on things.
>
> ``I'd almost like to think that they ought to have solved half the
> world's problems, but that's not likely,'' said salesman Dykstra.
> ``Philosophers know how to ask questions better than they know how to
> give answers.''
>
> This story ran on page A01 of the Boston Globe on 08/11/98. ©
> Copyright 1998 Globe Newspaper Company.
>
> *****************
> Wade T. Smith
> morbius@channel1.com | "There ain't nothin' you
> wade_smith@harvard.edu | shouldn't do to a god."
> ******* http://www.channel1.com/users/morbius/ *******