> So people who say things for a living, like intellectuals, pretend that what we say is all that matters—history is all about ideas—because it makes them seem more important than they really are
It would also appear that this is why they are often the ones to develop - in right political circumstances, i.e. when winning by force of coali…
> So people who say things for a living, like intellectuals, pretend that what we say is all that matters—history is all about ideas—because it makes them seem more important than they really are
It would also appear that this is why they are often the ones to develop - in right political circumstances, i.e. when winning by force of coalition is uncertain - the "liberal" values against burning intellectuals at the stake. They have a strong incentive to convince people not to burn intellectuals at the stake - to mitigate (ii).
Yea, that's an interesting hypothesis. I think I buy it. The hypothesis would predict that the people with the highest support for free speech would be intellectuals who are uncertain or precarious politically--e.g., non-leftists or moderate leftists in academia. This seems to be very true based on my personal experience.
> So people who say things for a living, like intellectuals, pretend that what we say is all that matters—history is all about ideas—because it makes them seem more important than they really are
It would also appear that this is why they are often the ones to develop - in right political circumstances, i.e. when winning by force of coalition is uncertain - the "liberal" values against burning intellectuals at the stake. They have a strong incentive to convince people not to burn intellectuals at the stake - to mitigate (ii).
Yea, that's an interesting hypothesis. I think I buy it. The hypothesis would predict that the people with the highest support for free speech would be intellectuals who are uncertain or precarious politically--e.g., non-leftists or moderate leftists in academia. This seems to be very true based on my personal experience.