The Sense of Wonder, Original Justice and Fallen Man...

Feb 10, 2009 21:41

Our reading group is doing Chesterton now, which can be a bit of a frustration since (a) Chesterton's perspective on economics predates both Keynes and Friedman, which means that a lot of his ideas are now obviously bunk (but he didn't know that at the time) and (b) he has a tendency to shamelessly straw man his opponents. But today he sparked an ( Read more... )

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ephraemsyrus February 11 2009, 14:35:37 UTC
Chesterton, for good or ill, was a journalist. Even (perhaps especially) when he wrote on topics calling for intellectual precision, he followed his intuition, did not spurn grand rhetorical flourishes, and enjoyed exaggerating to make his point. His "biography" of Thomas Aquinas, for instance, is a wonderful read, a fascinating character sketch, contains truth, and gives understanding, but it is no biography in the factual sense, nor is it a good historiography of the philosophical disputes of the time. He simplifies egregiously.

Could you provide some references to the things you've been reading on economics and wonder? URLs would be nice :) but if you don't have 'em, I can hit the library. Before I answer your questions, I'd need to brush up.

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gaudium_et_spes February 12 2009, 04:00:02 UTC

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