CHAPTER THREE How Philosophers of Science Promoted Leftist Pseudoscience

CHAPTER THREE How Philosophers of Science Promoted Leftist Pseudoscience
Note:3@@@@@@@@@@DAL NEOPOSITIVISMO ROSSO

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It is well known that the majority clearly leaned to the left.
Note:IDEOLOGIA POLITICA DEI NEOPOSITIVISTI

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strongly interested in social and political progress.
Note:CARNAP PARLA X TITTI...TUTTI SOCIALISTI

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declaring oneself to be a socialist in the 1920s and 1930s
Note:TACITO SUPPORTO ALL URSS

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In 1933 he joined the American Communist Party and was appointed the chairman of its Agitprop Committee.
Note:ALBERT BLUMBERG...FONDATORE DEL CIRCOLO

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Blumberg insisted that bloodshed is inevitable
Note:LA POLITICA CHE AVEVA IN MENTE EMERSE NEL PROCESSO

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“Are you prepared to take a rifle and fight in the streets of Baltimore?”
Note:LA DOMANDA CHE B RIVOLGEVA AGLI AFFILIATI

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No Reactionaries, Please!
Note:Tttttttttttttt

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briefly look at the journal Philosophy of Science,
Note:EXEMPLA

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“We have representatives of practically all the shades of opinion . . . radicals, progressives, a few tried veterans of established philosophic fashion, but no reactionaries” (Malisoff 1934, 3; emphasis added).
Note:EDITORIALE DEL DORETTORE

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left’s opponents.
Note:SENSO DEL TERMINE REAZIONARIO

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I was somewhat surprised to see your acknowledgement of [Friedrich] von Hayek.
Note:CARNAP A POPPER

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all leftists regard him as a reactionary
Note:Cccccccccccc

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right-of-center views in American politics.
Note:IL SENSO IN USA X MOLTI LEFTIES

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Republicans (i.e., the reactionaries)
Note:L OPINIONE DI GÕDEL

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this country [the United States] moves more and more in a reactionary direction”
Note:CARNAP A POPPER

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Lenin’s book Materialism and Empirio-Criticism,
Note:FONTE DEL SENSO PIÙ ORTODOSSO

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Frank mentions Lenin’s book and points to similarities between “diamat” (dialectical materialism) and logical positivism.
Note:IL LINK

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the two approaches share the struggle against metaphysics,
Note:Ccccccccccc

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Mach uses “a reactionary philosophical trick” or “verbal trickery”; is “an egregious sophist,” “a graduated lackey of fideism”;
Note:IL MACHISTA FRANK DIFENDE LENIN QUANDO LENIN ATTACCA MACH COSÌ

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one of the two books reviewed was Friedrich Engels’s Dialectics of Nature, published nine years earlier
Note:PRIMO NUMERO

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reviewer called the book “an important contribution” and did not raise a single criticism,
Note:OSSEQUIO

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reviewer oddly distorted Einstein’s famously negative opinion about the value of Dialectics of Nature,
Note:TRUCCHETTI

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the content of the book “was of no special interest
Note:X EINSTEIN

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Engels’s work, being devoid of scientific merit, could be published merely out of biographical interest.
Note:UNICA CONCESSIONE

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contains a lot of dialectical mumbo-jumbo
Note:LIBRO PIENO DI SUPERCAZZOLE

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The Argument from Pravda
Note:Tttttttttttttttt

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were contributors at least permitted to be politically neutral? Malisoff argued against this kind of tolerance:
Note:BANDITA ANCHE LA NEUTRALITÀ POLITICA

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neutrality invariably turns out in practice to be a tolerance of the supremacy of evil
Note:L IDEA DI FONDO

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Turning science into a battleground between good and evil
Note:DOVE SI FINISCE

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history provides a striking example of an evidently pseudoscientific view being associated with “progressive” politics
Note:LYSENKO

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He couched pseudoscientific ideas about biology and agriculture in the language of the official dogma of dialectical materialism
Note:IL MISFATTO DEL NOSTRO

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scientists who opposed his views were arrested and shot.
Note:UNA VOLTA OTTENUTO L APPOGGIO DI PARTITO

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wreckers and kulaks are located not only in your collective farms. . . . They are just as dangerous, just as resolute in science.
Note:KULAKI IN LABORATORIO

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“Bravo, comrade Lysenko, bravo!”
Note:STALIN LO LONDRA INTERRUPE COSÌ

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Lysenko’s reign in Soviet biology lasted until the fall of Khrushchev in 1964.
Note:LA FINE DEL SUO REGNO

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interesting to observe how Philosophy of Science reacted to this affair
Note:LA REAZIONE IN OCCIDENTE

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“you cannot believe all that you read in the newspapers”
Note:TROPPO PER ESSERE VERO...INFATTI NN LO SI CREDETTE VERO

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Somerville referred to an article from . . . Pravda!
Note:PER SCREDITARE LE CATTIVE NOTIZIE...

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Needless to say, the article claimed that scientists in the USSR were completely free
Note:DESCRIZIONI PARADISIACHE

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A vicious and intellectually dishonest work, made all the more unpalatable
Note:LA RIVISTA SU UN LIBRO DI DENUNCIA MOLTO ACCURATO

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The Silence of the Darwinists
Note:Tttttttttttttttttt

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leading biologists such as J. B. S. Haldane and H. J. Muller.
Note:PRESENTI NEL COMITATO EDITORIALE

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Haldane had joined the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1942 and he publicly defended Lysenko
Note:AHI AHI AHI

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the prospects for genetical research are considerably better in the Soviet Union
Note:L OPINIONE DI H RIDOTTA AL MINIMO

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“in my opinion, Lysenko is a very fine biologist
Note:VIRGOLETTATO DI H

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Muller knew very well how dire the situation of Soviet scientists was but he refused to talk about these matters in public.
Note:UN ALTRO NOBEL...RETICENTE

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I do not want to become an agent of anti-Soviet propaganda.
Note:GIUSTIFICARE IL SILENZIO

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the noble cause of socialism was a good reason to postpone telling the uncomfortable truth
Note:LA SOLITA TIRITERA

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“Move on; nothing to see here.”
Note:IL MESSAGGIO DELLA RIVISTA

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the Philosophical Review
Note:QUI SI VA ANCORA PEGGIO...APERTURA AGLI STALINISTI

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a paper by John Somerville in which he praised Stalin’s “famous speech” that “played such a large role in the philosophical discussion.”
Note:PEANA

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Philipp Frank,
Note:CHI AI SPINSE PIÙ IN LA NEL TEMPO...ANNI CINQUANTA

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no attempt was ever made to exert political influences on physical theories proper”
Note:PRIMA DI LENIN IN RUSSIA

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deism was logically inherent in the concept of a four-dimensional space-time continuum
Note:TIPICA CRITICA SOVIETICA A EINSTEIN....IDEOLOGIA X PRIMA...RELATIVITÀ RIGETTATA

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“a rotten swamp”
Note:DEFINIZIONE DELA RELATIVITÁ IN URSS

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physical theories’ coming under political attack,
Note:IL METODO SOVISTICO

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Tinker, Tailor, Philosopher . . . Spy
Note:Ttttttttttt

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Malisoff was actually a KGB agent.
Note:A QUANTO PARE...VENONA DOCUMENTS

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a quite banal reason: money.
Note:NN SOLO IDEOLOGIA

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materials he had provided to the KGB yielded the Soviet Union millions of dollars while the amount he requested (but did not get) was “trifling.”
Note:LA LAMENTELA ALL ATTO DEL PAGAMENTO

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some of the money he received from the KGB may have been channeled into paying the costs of running the journal.
IL LATO IRONOCO DELLA FACCENDA

Camus sull'intellettuale engagé

Riccardo Mariani

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Albert Camus medita sull'impegno politico: tutte le idee distorte finiscono nel sangue, ma si tratta sempre del sangue altrui. Ecco perché certi nostri intellettuali si sentono liberi di dire qualunque cosa.
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When Reason Goes on Holiday: Philosophers in Politics

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Analitici nel pallone

Riccardo Mariani

10 marzo alle ore 13:06 · 

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Lo scopo del libro: mostrare come molti tra i più importanti filosofi analitici del mondo anglosassone abbiano sostenuto posizioni politiche chiaramente irrazionali e fanatiche proprio mentre il contributo accademico che davano alla loro discplina era caratterizzato da un pensiero estremamente accurato e da un rigore intellettuale di prim' ordine.
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When Reason Goes on Holiday: Philosophers in Politics

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C

CHAPTER ONE The Wisdom That Failed

CHAPTER ONE The Wisdom That Failed
Note:1@@@@@@@@@@

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Should philosophers be kings,
Note:IPOTESI PLATO

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ruled by the first 2,000 people listed in the telephone
Note:IPOTESI BUCKLEY

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many leading philosophers have shown embarrassingly poor judgment
Note:L EVIDENZA

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How could people who are obviously very clever
Note:MA LA VERA QIESTIONE

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twentieth-century philosophers have a bad track record
Note:I FATTI

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defending totalitarian political systems
Note:UN CLASSICO

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Jean-Paul Sartre
Note:TRE ESEMPI

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Martin Heidegger

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Michel Foucault
Note:IL KOHMEINISTA

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The terms continental and analytic
Note:IRRILEVANTE UNA DISTINZIONE COMUNE

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committed “to the ideals of clarity, rigor, and argumentation”
Note:COME SI REPHUTA IL F ANALITICO

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We Will Teach You How to Think, They Said
Note:Ttttttttttt LA PRETESA DEGLO AN

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philosophy serves to develop intellectual abilities
Note:LA FUNZIONE DELLA FILOSOFIA

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the alleged effects of studying philosophy:

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enhance students’ analytical, critical, and communicative

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APA provides no evidence at all for the wonderful improvements
Note:MA È COSÌ? ZERO EVIDENZE

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“the issue of whether generalizable reasoning skills transfer to reasoning contexts outside of formal schooling remains an open question
Note:DOPO 100 ANNI DI STUDI

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promise something like “far transfer”
Note:LE PROMESSE DELLA SCUOLA

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APA is involved in false advertising,

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correlation between studying philosophy and all these good outcomes does not mean that the former causes the latter.

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ERRORE DI RAZIONALIZZAZIONE IN CHI ESALTA LA FILOSOF

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those who embark on philosophy studies are simply smarter
Note:ABILITY BIAS

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develop the capacities to “think well about important issues”
Note:PUBBL NELLE FACOLTÀ DI FILO

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a petition titled “Make Reasoning Skills Compulsory in Schools”
Note:LA PETIZIONE PER RENDERE OBBL LA FILO

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only one scientific study.
Note:LA BASE A SUPORTO DELLA PET

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sample of 177 children,

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the study in question themselves explicitly cautioned the reader
Note:AUTORE INCOLPEVOLE

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authors pointed out that their study suffered from methodological imperfections

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the durability of those effects
Note:IL PUNTO DEBOLE

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a number of well-known philosophers (including Simon Blackburn, Jonathan Glover, Bill Brewer, A. C. Grayling, Duncan Pritchard, Peter Simons, Jon Williamson,
Note:A SOSTEGNO DI AFFERMAZIONI AZZARDATE

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among the names of the supporters we also find leading philosophers of science
Note:LA SORPRESA MAGIORE

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they should be acutely aware of the possibility of self-deception.
Note:COME SPIEGARLO

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Russell’s Paradox: A Genius with a Streak of Foolishness
Note:Tttttttt

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Bertrand Russell expressed a similar view about the practical usefulness of philosophy:
Note:UN ALTRO CHE CI È CASCATO

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essential characteristic of philosophy . . . is criticism.
Note:LA SUA VISIONE

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little trace of critical examination in many of Russell’s own actions

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about politics he is a perfect goose”
Note:UN GIUDIZIO SU DI LUI

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United States was as much a police state as Hitler’s Germany or Stalin’s Russia.
Note:UN SUO GIUDIZIO

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he American Garrison will be occupying England and France”
Note:UNA SUA PREVISIONE DEL 1918

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it was “completely false” that the mass of Russians were against the Bolsheviks
Note:ALTRO GIUDIZIO

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Russell comes close to saying the USA “is responsible for literally every evil in the world”
Note:IL DEMONIO

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Russell expressed “full solidarity” with the Vietnamese Communist
Note:SOLIDARIETÀ DI BR

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“Better ten innocent deaths than one enemy survivor”
Note:RICORDIAMO IL MOTTO DI HO CHI MINH

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he was demonstrating against the United States in favor of Soviet Russia”
Note:RIFERISCE QUINE

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“Its oversimplification of the issues
Note:TIPICO

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Communist Temptations at Oxford

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tttttttt

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philosophy has beneficial consequences in the political domain:
Note:X AUSTIN

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his sharp logical mind did not save him from “ill-founded enthusiasms.”
Note:EPPURE

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admiration for the great men who had worked against gigantic odds, Marx and Lenin for example”
Note:UN SENTIMENTO DI A DOPO LA VISITA IN URSS

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impressed by the discipline and the austerity of life

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A. J. Ayer,
Note:COME AUSTIN

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after the book was published Ayer had a baffling bout of irrationality in politics.
Note:IL LIBRO DI AA CHE DEFINIVA LA RAZIONALITÀ

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join the Communist Party
Note:DOPO LA FRESCA CONDANNA DEI DISSIDENTI

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Any reasonable person must have had serious doubts
Note:COME MINIMO

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the British Communist Party took the hard Stalinist line
Note:IL PARTITP SCELTO DA AA

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his reason for not joining was that he “did not believe in dialectical materialism”
Note:IL PROB DI AA COI COMUN GB

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Bad Arguments and Bad Politics: What Causes What?
Note:Tttttttttttttt

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believed in the salutary influence of philosophy on political attitudes.
Note:DUMMETT. ALTRO CREDULONE

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philosophers in particular “have a duty to make themselves sensitive to social issues”
Note:PER MD

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Dummett’s philosophy didn’t keep him from making a fool
Note:TUTTAVIA....

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Dagfinn Føllesdal,
Note:UN ALTRO

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political follies and fanaticism.
Note:LA SORTE DEI RAZIONALISTI

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to show that some of the leading analytic philosophers have held political views that are both deeply troubling
Note:LO SCOPO DEL LIBRO

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academic contributions to philosophy usually carried the marks of extremely careful thinking and the highest intellectual rigor.
Note:IN PARALLELO

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Quell'idiota di Bertrand Russell

Riccardo Mariani

1 h · 

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rintronato. Riteneva per esempio che gli Stati Uniti fossero uno stato di polizia al pari della Germania di Hitler e dell'Unione Sovietica di Stalin. Già nel 1918 pensava che l'America avesse occupato sia l'Inghilterra che la Francia! Per lui l'Unione Sovietica era un paese democratico e i bolscevichi avevano l'appoggio dell'intera popolazione. Nel periodo post bellico, parlo della seconda guerra mondiale, considerava gli USA responsabili praticamente di tutte le sofferenze prodotte sul pianeta terra. Espresse piena solidarietà ai comunisti vietnamiti, quelli che combattevano al motto "meglio dieci docenti morti che un nemico sopravvissuto". Nel periodo della guerra fredda dimostrò in piazza a ripetizione contro gli Stati Uniti e a favore dell'Unione sovietica. Il New York Times, sempre critico con l'amministrazione americana specie durante la guerra del Vietnam, rifiutò diversi suoi articoli perché ingenui e sciatti nelle loro caricaturali accuse a Zio Sam. Ma come è mai possibile che un genio della filosofia e della matematica quando passava a considerare gli scenari politici si trasformasse in un puerile semplificatore della realtà? Tra i tanti paradossi che propone l'opera di Russell quello che il genio realizza vivendo è forse il più clamoroso e istruttovo.
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When Reason Goes on Holiday: Philosophers in Politics

Philosophers usually emphasize the importance of logic, clarity and reason. Therefore when they address political issues they will usually inject a dose of rationality in these discussions, right?Wrong. This book gives a lot of examples showing the unexpected…

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Ragionamento localizzato

Riccardo Mariani

15 h · 

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Se un soggetto ragiona bene in filosofia ciò significa che ragionerá bene anche in geometria, in politica, in geografia, in musica, in economia...?

Dopo 100 anni di dibattito gli psicologi sono scettici: non esiste un'abilità generica di ragionare. Le competenze cognitive sono specifiche... purtroppo la pesunzione no.
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When Reason Goes on Holiday: Philosophers in Politics

Philosophers usually emphasize the importance of logic, clarity and reason. Therefore when they address political issues they will usually inject a dose of rationality in these discussions, right?Wrong. This book gives a lot of examples showing the unexpected…

AMAZON.COM

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