I don't agree with everything Weaver says (e.g., he might have a small point about jazz, but his criticism is much too harsh and general), but he's a very original thinker whose ideas merit serious consideration. If he doesn't always hit the nail on the head, I think he's ohten not far from the truth. ( )

Summary: An argument tracing the dissolution of Western society to the abandonment of philosophical realism for nominalism and what may be done to reverse that decline.

Many authors have traced the decline of the West (if there is such a thing) to the ideas that shape our culture. Few have argued that more trenchantly or been cited more often that Richard M. Weaver, an intellectual historian and professor of English at the University of Chicago during the mid-twentieth century. I’ve been aware of this book for over twenty years but just now have gotten around to it.

Weaver’s argument begins with the abandonment of philosophical realism, the existence of transcendent or metaphysical truth for nominalism, the denial of absolute universals but only the particulars of our existence. He then traces some of the ways this manifests itself. First he discusses the obliteration of the distinctions and hierarchies which constitute society for an egalitarian ideal. He then notes the fragmentation of modern societies. No longer capable of philosophy, we are reduced to facts without coherent structure. Without the transcendent, the self is the measure of value. Egotism is a word that runs through his discussion. When work is only about self-realization rather than being divinely ordained, work becomes a matter of getting the better of others rather than pursuing the common good. Art, as it becomes solipsistic, degenerates. Weaver saves his harshest criticism for the distinctly American music of jazz.

In the rejection of a transcendent metaphysic, moderns come up with a modern synthesis which Weaver calls “the great stereopticon” consisting of the trinity of the press, the motion picture, and the radio (television was just coming on the scene in 1948). These foster the fragmented, disharmonious experience of our lives, often distracting us from their banal character, a critique that seems to have anticipated Neil Postman’s, Amusing Ourselves to Death. All of this fosters in us a “spoiled child” psychology amid technological advances that believes in a material heaven easily achieved.

Weaver’s final three chapters address his proposed remedy–what must be done. First is to reassert and protect the right of private property, the only metaphysical right he believes has not yet been jettisoned in the four hundred year decline he traces. The extension of this from homes to businesses to agriculture preserves and restores volition and undercuts authoritarian tyrannies–whether capitalist or communist. He also argues for the power of the word, both poetic and logical, advocating for instruction in logic and rhetoric. Finally, he contends for restoration of “spirit of piety” with regard for nature, for one’s neighbors, and the past.

For me, what I would most criticize is his concern about distinctions and orders, that seem for him established on the basis of heredity and immutable characteristics, like gender. It felt like women, and perhaps the races must be kept in their places, an idea more in a Platonic rather than Christian metaphysic. It also makes me wonder whether Weaver would want to extend private property to all in society, or is arguing for the protection of the “haves.” I also don’t think much of his application of egotism to the arts, and especially to jazz, rooted in the laments of the blues, and the transcendent hope of the spirituals. I thought this deeply dismissive and a critique imposed from a superficial extension of his basic idea of egotism that little considers the actual work of the artists.

That said, his basic discussion of the consequences of the shift from realism to nominalism, from absolutes to relativism, particularly in the rise of fragmentation, exacerbated by the stereopticon of our media is worth our attention, prescient as it was in 1948. I find myself wondering whether his remedies of private property, the power of words, and the recovery of piety toward the earth, our neighbors, and history get us all the way back to life grounded in transcendent realities, from which he traces our decline. These seem more a holding action at best.

I also found this a challenging read in which the thread of argument gets buried in prose, sparkling at times, and obscuring at others. It felt like reading John Henry Newman–there is a great argument in here, somewhere! It’s an important work, especially for classic conservatives, that anticipates the thought of others. Just be ready for some work as you read it! ( )

12/11/21

Tightly-written short book on the philosophical origins of the postwar traditionalist conservative movement in the United States. Weaver opens by stating in a matter-of-fact tone that "this is another book about the dissolution of the West." Weaver attacks moral relativism insistently, suggesting that the "denial of everything transcending experience means inevitably…the denial of truth. With the denial of objective truth there is no escape from the relativism of ‘man is the measure of all things.'" ( )

LT Ideas Have Consequences, Richard M. Weaver, Phoenix Books, 1948, 4/29-5/28/21
Recommended by [if anybody], Where is hard copy?

Theme: the idea that there is (not) objective reality has consequences; ontology versus autonomy; God or no God (man becomes god); see Carlyle quote 18-below, 182, 184; “the dissolution of the west” 1
Type: philosophy, social critique
Value: 1-
Age: post-college
Interest: 2+ difficult to understand wording and vocabulary
Objectionable:
Synopsis/Noteworthy:

Richard Weaver traces current social (human) destruction to nominalism (Occam, 3); that is, self defines (decides, declares) reality versus discovers reality; his claimed authority seems to be intuition (originally that it was philosophy, v); the world has forsaken first principles (2-3, 14)/God for materialism (vi); humanism/pluralism is the problem (2, 4); his a prioris (19)

(Carlyle, 1840, p.18) But the thing a man does practically believe (and this is often enough without asserting it even to himself, much less to others); the thing a man does practically lay to heart, and know for certain, concerning his vital relations to this mysterious Universe, and his duty and destiny there, that is in all cases the primary thing for him, and creatively determines all the rest. That is his religion; or, it may be, his mere scepticism and no-religion: the manner it is in which he feels himself to be spiritually related to the Unseen World or No-World; and I say, if you tell me what that is, you tell me to a very great extent what the man is, what the kind of things he will do is.

Cheryl 63, 175-respect
Ethan 10, 58fp, 80, 126, 139, 140, 163-1642, 176 [fp: and preceding, my made up! 5/3/21 ff: folios following
Lauren Reneau 81ff
Nate 31
Whit 70ff, 82, 162, 166, 184, 185

Faith vis a vis intelligence (seems to conflate them, confuses them?) 1, 3, 17
Worldview 3
Nature imitates transcendent 4
Sentiment 9, 17, 42, 54, 75, 76, 78, 85, 112, 118, 130, 147, 159, 1633, 180, 182
Education 7-8, 49, 79, 92-93, 114-115 (CBC), 136, 149, 155, 165, 169
Decadent by nature 10
Ends 12
Knowledge 12
Laziness 15
Ultimate beliefs (religion) 18, 127, 131, 146, 185
Immediacy 25, 27
Parents 30
Friends 31
Milton 39, 54
Equalitarianism 42, 44
(Non)progressive 51, 67, 69, 155
Academia 57
One-many 62
Mental illness 67-68
Self-absorption 70-71
RW secularizes God 76
Work 75-7, 116
Art 80
Augustinian 79-80
Music 83ff, 185
Perfect self or sensual enjoyment?! 91
Zeitgeist implementation-conspiracy 94, 104
Censorship 101
Goal of life-happiness 105, 106-7 (CBC), 116-8
Philosophy 106, 108,
Plato’s cave 111, 172
Saint-Exupery 109
Whigs 110, 130
Empiricism versus idealism 111
Extremism (exposed) 119
State 124
Socialism 125
Systemic racism 126
Socialism begins with recognition of problems 129 then 130
Educative power of experience 131
Social security 138
Reality is verbal 149-52, 156
Definitions 155-7
Wisdom-language 161, 173
Poetry 162, 165-6
Redefinitions! 164
Latin-Greek 166
Thinking 168
Nature 174
Respect others 175-6
Learn from-respect the past 176-7
Conservatism 172ff
City versus country 174
Equality of men/women 177-80
Individuality 180-1
Rebellion 182
Man as God 183
Paying the price—unable/unwilling 186-7
A closing class to discipline/submission to reality 186-7
All in this together 187