Page 15 - Boca ViewPointe- January '20

January 2020 Viewpointe, Page 15

Book Review from page 14 account traces the history of the pursuit of knowledge from who chose martyrdom rather than acknowledge that King
the Renaissance and Shakespeare to the modern world. Henry VIII was the head of the English church. For that, he
two towering geniuses of The Scottish Enlightenment. Neither The history of the Enlightenment, questioning of religion, received the sentence for “High Treason,” forced to watch, “as
married, they supported each other, quickly putting aside the evolution of science, politics, economics, genetics his penis was cut off and stuffed into his mouth, his stomach
formality in their correspondence, by addressing one other foreshadowed by poet John Donne’s “the new philosophy calls then cut off and his intestines tossed into a cauldron of boiling
with the friendly “My Dear friend,” and then more intimate all in doubt,” the age of reason brought to its fullest realization. water so that the dying man might smell his own mortality.
“My Dearest friend.” Adam Smith, known for being the father Freelance philosopher Rée renders the names of the figures in Then the heart was plucked from his steaming body and held
of economic science, embraced the friendship of his elder, the this history from the clergyman Ralph Lever who coined the before his face.” Shall we seek a lesson for today?
notorious fellow Scot David Hume who used his reasoning pun witcraft with its subversive innuendo of witchly mischief; I realize that this is not so much a Book Review as a concise
powers to cast doubt on the certainty of reason itself. He and those who created the foundation of modern philosophy, Reading List which will introduce you to the complexity
proposed in his Treatise on Human Nature while still in his including thumbnail sketches of Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, of three distinct voices – with stunning clarity regarding
twenties, that reason ultimately teaches that we can really have Hume, Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, William James, to humanity’s search for truth and its consequences. This search
certainty of nothing. Only logic and mathematics can offer Bertrand Russell and Wittgenstein, at the conclusion whose oftentimes can be heretical since it questions assumptions
certainty of knowledge; and in his famous apercu suggested torpid relationship renders a contrast to the refined amiability and beliefs and questions the prevailing authority. Perhaps
that our reason can’t even assure us that the sun will rise in between Hume and Adam Smith. the most noble potential of our species. And this effort may
the morning. His Achilles heel was his religious skepticism, Costica Bradatan presents philosophy in a very specific happily occupy you intellectually for some few hours during
his doubting Thomas attitude that brought him ignominy, context, philosophers who put their lives on the line. the winter solstice here in Boca Raton.
restricted advancement in his career and acceptance by society, Philosophy in his definition is not merely learning how to live,
and blackened him with the nomenclature of the “dangerous but also how to die – for truth. He talks about the body of the Dr. Ronald J. Meyers, a resident of La Paz, is an Emeritus
infidel.” Even Adam Smith demurred from publishing Hume’s philosopher as distinct from the body of their work. They deal Professor of English. rmeyers@esu.edu. 
History of Religion after the passing of his dear friend. with the world, the human condition and the common good.
For his part, Adam Smith hewed the fine line of religious Socrates eagerly took the poison hemlock without renouncing
conformity and earned his status as a Professor of Moral his teachings; in fact insistently affirming that he chose the life
Sentiments at the University of Glasgow. But reason did of virtue, which is why Plato chose to immortalize him. You
lead him to the discovery of modern economics, in his 1776 will learn about the Alexandrian mathematician, astronomer
masterpiece The Wealth of Nations, published four months (and likely feminist before her time) Hypatia, Giordino
before our revolution, the revolutionary Bible of economic Bruno, the film maker Pier Paul Pasolini, Mohamed Bouazizi
science. As if the great twentieth century moralist Reinhold the Tunisian street vendor who self-immolated in protest to
Niebuhr was chosen to be the Commissioner of the NFL, and being denied his economic rights and influenced the Arab Providing expert specialized care
argued for laissez faire economics, to allow the interests of Spring, these individuals over the last twenty five hundred for over 25 years
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Jonathan Rée in his turgid but pleasantly readable Bradatan recounts the horrific slaughter of Sir Thomas More
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