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Archive of posts published in the tag: intellectuals

When Philosophy Gets Democratized

“We see this wonderful paradox today that democratic intellectuals want more democracy than the American people—who are not intellectuals—want. They speak for the people and ask for reforms that the people themselves haven’t thought of or aren’t demanding or wouldn’t care about really but for their intellectuals, who impose on them.”

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Heartless Tyranny of Ideas

“Above all, we must at all times remember what intellectuals habitually forget: that people matter more than concepts and must come first. The worst of all despotisms is the heartless tyranny of ideas.”

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Fanaticism Defined

The world of ideas tempered by a realistic notion of human nature, moral considerations, and actual experiences is illuminating and useful. Attempting to bend human reality to theories in isolation is the definition of fanaticism.

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Beware Intellectuals

from the Wall Street Journal, Daniel Johnson’s review of the book, Public Intellectuals in the Public Arena. On a personal note: In the introduction to this book my father, Paul Johnson, is quoted warning in 1988, “One of the principal

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The Understanding of Limits

One of the significant lessons of the 20th Century intellectual history is the limitation of great minds and ideas, the inability and failure of some of the brightest thinkers to comprehend the consequences of their grand ideas, designed with great

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Power vs. Knowledge

“People on both sides of the ideological fault line may believe that those with the most knowledge should have the most weight in making decisions that impact society, but they have radically different conceptions of just where in society  there

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