tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post6962311342110465616..comments2024-03-19T07:48:54.021-06:00Comments on Gus Van Horn: 2-7-15 HodgepodgeGus Van Hornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05126749051688217781noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-33581627101519194762015-02-09T15:44:15.152-06:002015-02-09T15:44:15.152-06:00Jb,
I don't think you are accurately characte...Jb,<br /><br />I don't think you are accurately characterizing Peikoff's view of the Middle Ages.<br /><br />That said, what you call "nuance" <i>can</i> hurt. I get the impression that, were Schwartz to attempt to write to your satisfaction, he would have had to make the article much, much longer than he did, at which point, many people wouldn't have had the time to read it.<br /><br />Even you admit that the church killed heretics in the Middle Ages. It doesn't now, but Islam does. The best Schwartz can do in the space of a short article is <i>indicate</i> why he thinks this is the case. Rand actually <a href="http://gusvanhorn.blogspot.com/2008/02/brimming-with-insight.html" rel="nofollow">demolished the whole idea of the "unanswerable article"</a>, but I can think of another problem with it: The more it contains, the more people can nitpick about it, without ever having to consider its basic argument.<br /><br />His readers are adults: They can consider his evidence and read more if they see a reason to (as I would hope!).<br /><br />That said, if (many? most? some? the few you know personally? the people you regard as? your personal stereotype of? why are <i>you</i> attacking <i>anyone</i> for a lack of "nuance"?) "objectivists" don't read deeply, how is that Peter Schwartz's fault?<br /><br />GusGus Van Hornhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05126749051688217781noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-77439046519361964632015-02-09T08:41:53.433-06:002015-02-09T08:41:53.433-06:00I'd like to be sympathetic toward Schwartz but...I'd like to be sympathetic toward Schwartz but i read this all the time from objectivists. Peikoff once said that during the middle ages everyone who was productive was killed. One objectivist told me that if you read Aristotle in the middle ages you were executed.<br /><br />There have been many writers who have written sympathetically but not uncritically about the middle ages such as Christopher Dawson. I don't get the impression objectivists do much deep reading.<br /><br />Also why does Schwartz praise rhe renaissance which was largely platonic? And the founders didn't enact a separation of church and state. States under the constitution were free to have established churches which ct and mass did until 1830 or so<br /><br />A little nuance never hurt.<br /><br />JBAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-80339698791572060332015-02-09T06:48:05.275-06:002015-02-09T06:48:05.275-06:00Jb, I don't think a reasonable reader is going...Jb, <br><br>I don't think a reasonable reader is going to get the impression from the Schwartz piece that the medieval church managed to exterminate all opposition. That would be like someone reading about state control of the Soviet economy and imagining that the existence of black markets was an urban legend.<br><br>And so what if the state sometimes contested the authority of the church then? Those were usually mere power struggles, and not what we see waning today, which is the state keeping religion out if our affairs while not merely sticking its nose in, in its stead.<br><br>GusGus Van Hornhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05126749051688217781noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-20277380436388150552015-02-08T20:14:41.439-06:002015-02-08T20:14:41.439-06:00Of course the church did. But Schwartz seems to ...Of course the church did. But Schwartz seems to think it was a univers as phenomenon. There were plenty of people who. Opposed the church and got away with it.<br /><br />And the.church's authority was often questioned, particularly by the state.<br /><br />JBAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-22631698741360813972015-02-08T15:33:08.333-06:002015-02-08T15:33:08.333-06:00Jb,
I disagree with your assertion that Peter Sch...Jb,<br /><br />I <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heresy_in_Christianity#Late_Middle_Ages_and_Early_Modern" rel="nofollow">disagree</a> with your assertion that Peter Schwartz was wrong to point out that heretics were put to death by the church during medieval times.<br /><br />GusGus Van Hornhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05126749051688217781noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-23525908524642534772015-02-08T13:04:52.600-06:002015-02-08T13:04:52.600-06:00Schwartz is incorrect about the church and the mid...Schwartz is incorrect about the church and the middle ages. I wonder why so many objectivists believe urban legends. Next he will be telling us that people in the middle ages thought the earth was flat.<br /><br />JbAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com