[Vision2020] A short reading list on American anti-intellectualism

[Kenneth Marcy]

On Thursday 09 October 2008 16:58:10 Chasuk wrote:
> I adore Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the
> Dark.
>
> Are the others of the same caliber?

No, because they're different in the sense that they're not focused on 
science, and because they are written by social scientists rather than a 
natural scientist. One way to look at these books is through the lens of 
personality type as exposited by Carl Jung and Isabel Briggs Myers. Without 
going through the details, a person needs to have a pair of preferences, one 
for perception and one for deciding. Perception can be done more directly as 
sensation, or more indirectly, as intuition. The anti-intellectual divide, to 
some degree, at least, can be thought of as a set of differences between 
sensors and intuitives in various social environments -- schools, business, 
government, etc. C. G. Jung's Personality Types and I. B. Myers' Gifts 
Differing will give you the basics underlying this personality typing scheme.

If a social philosophy faculty member were to offer a lower division, fall 
semester course titled Philosophy of Intellect, these books on the syllabus 
would not surprise me. They are not as technically dense as readings for 
Belief and Reality, for example, and they form an informal, contemporary, 
social introduction to some of the questions in philosophy of science in 
spring semester.

Check out the reviews on amazon.com.


Ken