How to Understand Politics: What the Humanities Can Say to Science (2007)
Contesto: The simplified notion of self-interest used by our political and social science cannot tolerate the tension between one’s own and the good, for that tension leaves human behavior unpredictable. One cannot penetrate into every individual’s private thoughts, and there is no clear way to judge among different conceptions of the good. So in order to overcome the tension, science tries to combine one’s own and the good in such a way as to preserve neither. It generalizes one’s own as the interest of an average or, better to say, predictable individual who lives his life quantifiably so as to make its study easier for the social scientist. And for the same purpose it vulgarizes the good by eliminating the high and the mighty in our souls (not to mention the low and vicious), transforming our aspiration to nobility and truth into personal preferences of whose value science is incognizant, to which it is indifferent.
Harvey Mansfield: Frasi in inglese
How to Understand Politics: What the Humanities Can Say to Science (2007)
Contesto: People want to stand for something, which means opposing those who stand for something else. In the course of opposing they will often resort to insults and name-calling, which are normal in politics though never in your interest. The demand for more civility in politics today should be directed toward improving the quality of our insults, seeking civility in wit rather than blandness.
How to Understand Politics: What the Humanities Can Say to Science (2007)
Contesto: Self-interest, when simple, is universal; I would do the same as you. I would be propelled toward an obvious good, or toward a good I thought obvious. If self-interest is obvious, it is not really your very own; it has been generalized, perhaps artificially.
“People want to stand for something, which means opposing those who stand for something else.”
How to Understand Politics: What the Humanities Can Say to Science (2007)
Contesto: People want to stand for something, which means opposing those who stand for something else. In the course of opposing they will often resort to insults and name-calling, which are normal in politics though never in your interest. The demand for more civility in politics today should be directed toward improving the quality of our insults, seeking civility in wit rather than blandness.
“To overcome the resistance to truth, literature makes use of fictions that are images of truth.”
How to Understand Politics: What the Humanities Can Say to Science (2007)
Contesto: Literature... seeks to entertain — and why is this?... The reason, fundamentally, is that literature knows something that science does not: the human resistance to hearing the truth. Science does not inform scientists of this basic fact.... The wisdom of literature arises mainly from its attention to this point. To overcome the resistance to truth, literature makes use of fictions that are images of truth.
How to Understand Politics: What the Humanities Can Say to Science (2007)
How to Understand Politics: What the Humanities Can Say to Science (2007)
How to Understand Politics: What the Humanities Can Say to Science (2007)
How to Understand Politics: What the Humanities Can Say to Science (2007)
A Student’s Guide to Political Philosophy (2001), p. 6
“Sociobiology reduces the human to the animal instead of observing how the animal becomes human.”
How to Understand Politics: What the Humanities Can Say to Science (2007)
How to Understand Politics: What the Humanities Can Say to Science (2007)
How to Understand Politics: What the Humanities Can Say to Science (2007)
Origine: How to Understand Politics: What the Humanities Can Say to Science (2007)
“Science, according to science, ought to be the most important attribute of human beings.”
How to Understand Politics: What the Humanities Can Say to Science (2007)
How to Understand Politics: What the Humanities Can Say to Science (2007)
