Towards a Rational Philosophical Anthropology / Edition 1

by J. Agassi

Overview

The thesis of the present volume is critical and dual. (1) Present day philosophy of man and sciences of man suffer from the Greek mis­ taken polarization of everything human into nature and convention which is (allegedly) good and evil, which is (allegedly) truth and fal­ sity, which is (allegedly) rationality and irrationality, to wit, the polar­ ization of all fields of inquiry, the natural and social sciences, as well as ethics and all technology, whether natural or social, into the totally positive and the totally negative. (2) Almost all philosophy and sci­ ences of man share the erroneous work ethic which is the myth of man's evil nature - the myth of the beast in man, the doctrine of original sin. To mediate or to compromise between the first view of human nature as good with the second view of it as evil, sociologists have devised a modified utilitarianism with deferred gratification so­ called, and the theory of the evil of artificial competition (capitalist and socialist alike) and of keeping up with the Joneses. Now, the mediation is not necessary. For, the polarization makes for abstract errors which are simplistic views of rationality, such as reductionism and positivism of all sorts, as well as for concrete errors, such as the disposition to condemn repeatedly those human weaknesses which are inevitable, namely man's inability to be perfectly rational, avoid all error, etc. , thus setting man against himself as all too wicked.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789024720033
Publisher:	Springer Netherlands
Publication date:	08/31/1977
Series:	Jerusalem Van Leer Foundation , #1
Edition description:	1977
Pages:	404
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.04(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction: Against the Elitism of Excessive Scholarship.- Notes.- One: Man as Machine.- Notes.- I. Positivism is to be rejected out of hand.- Notes.- II. Reductionism is an attractive metaphysics.- Notes.- III. Explanation is not elimination.- Notes.- IV. In praise of methodological pluralism.- V. In praise of idle speculation.- Notes.- Two: Man as Animal.- Notes.- VI. Man-as-animal is not the animal-in-man.- Notes.- VII. The philosophical weakness of neo-Darwinism.- Notes.- VIII. The subtlety of behaviorism is sham.- Notes.- IX. Behaviorism as a stern moralizing.- Notes.- X. Anti-intellectualism explained.- Notes.- Three: Man as Rational.- Notes.- XI. Greek metaphysics today.- Notes.- XII. Science and pseudo-science are entangled.- Notes.- XIII. Science is traditionally based on a myth.- Notes.- XIV. The myth that science is utterly rational.- Notes.- XV. Social science without the myth of science.- Notes.- Four: Man as Social.- Notes.- XVI. The rationality of science is partial.- Notes.- XVII. Assuming too much rationality is silly.- Notes.- XVIII. Equality is hard to define.- Notes.- XIX. Psychologism and collectivism explain away each other.- Notes.- XX. A non-reductionist demarcation between psychology and sociology.- Notes.- Five: Man in the Image of God.- Notes.- XXI. Utopias of psychologism and of collectivism are identical.- Notes.- XXII. Skepticism rehabilitated.- Notes.- XXIII. Culture is no burden.- Notes.- XXIV. An image of the democratic man.- Notes.- XXV. Towards a rational philosophical anthropology.- Notes.- Index of Names.- Index of Subjects.