Ideas

Richard Weaver penned his book, Ideas Have Consequences, in 1948, and those ideas still resonate today. Ideas do have consequences.

If we examine our world we will find that not only do ideas have consequences, but they have power too. Ideas have started revolutions, oppressed many and killed more. That is why it is important to read the thoughts of Weaver and understand the power of ideas.

Weaver helps us understand the story as he writes:

"This story is eloquently reflected in changes that have come over education. The shift from the truth of the intellect to the facts of experience followed hard upon the meeting with the witches. A little sign appears, "a cloud no bigger than a man’s hand," in a change that came over the study of logic in the fourteenth century-the century of Occam. Logic became grammaticized, passing from a science which taught men vere loqui to one which taught recte loqui or from an ontological division by categories to a study of signification, with the inevitable focus upon historical meanings. Here begins the assault upon definition: if words no longer correspond to objective realities, it seems no great wrong to take liberties with words. From this point on, faith in language as a means of arriving at truth weakens, until our own age, filled with an acute sense of doubt, looks for a remedy in the new science of semantics."

But, semantics would not be the end but the beginning. He writes:

"So with the subject matter of education. The Renaissance increasingly adapted its course of study to produce a successful man of the world, though it did not leave him without philosophy and the graces, for it was still, by heritage, at least, an ideational world and was therefore near enough transcendental conceptions to perceive the dehumanizing effects of specialization. In the seventeenth century physical discovery paved the way for the incorporation of the sciences, although it was not until the nineteenth that these began to challenge the very continuance of the ancient intellectual disciplines. And in this period the change gained momentum, aided by two developments of overwhelming influence. The first was a patent increase in man’s dominion over nature which dazzled all but the most thoughtful; and the second was the growing mandate for popular education. The latter might have proved a good in itself, but it was wrecked on equalitarian democracy’s unsolvable problem of authority: none was in a position to say what the hungering multitudes were to be fed. Finally, in an abject surrender to the situation, in an abdication of the authority of knowledge, came the elective system. This was followed by a carnival of specialism, professionalism, and vocationalism, often fostered and protected by strange bureaucratic devices, so that on the honored name of university there traded a weird con genes of interests, not a few of which were anti-intellectual even in their pretensions."

And, there it is; the story of mankind's passage from religious beings to philosophical beings. Many will acknowledge this passage as positive and good, but a closer look will reveal another passage. This one is the passage from morality to decadence. And, like it or not, that is where we find ourselves today. Weaver paints an accurate picture of this story. One every Christian should read in order to understand current culture. Blessings! 

Richard Weaver

The words of Richard Weaver, in his book, Ideas Have Consequences, are as important today as they were when he penned them in 1948. Weaver writes,

"It is the appalling problem, when one comes to actual cases, of getting men to distinguish between better and worse. Are people today provided with a sufficiently rationale scale of values to attach these predicates with intelligence? There is ground for declaring that modern man has become a moral idiot."

Weaver writes that when no one desires to examine their own lives or accept rebuke for their own actions what is lost is any idea of a superiority of an ideal. I would say that his prediction is amazingly accurate. In today's world, everyone "should" own a home, have a good job, go to college and the list goes on and on. Just thirty years ago, these things were "wants," reserved for the best and the brightest who worked hard and stayed clear of trouble. Today, they are re-classified as needs, given to everyone regardless of their circumstances. How will we ever distinguish better from worse when we can not distinguish needs from wants? It is the first question of many more to come.

Ideas Have Consequences

Many years ago Richard M. Weaver wrote an important book known by the title, Ideas Have Consequences. In this book, he writes about this whole idea of culture like no one before him. His purposes are two: first to present an account of the decline of the west through deduction, and second, to present the idea that man should not follow the path of scientific analysis for his moral goodness.

Weaver makes the case that with the banishment of universals from the dialogue of truth, the general idea of what is real has changed, and, in turn, changed general culture putting modern man on the road to empiricism. This movement was not subtle, but it was radical change and, according to Weaver, "it is easy to be blind to the significance of a change because it is remote in time and abstract in character." This denial of universals is a denial of everything transcending and absolute. It seeps into belief and belief is so powerful that it influences every concept connected to it, and before long, if left unchecked, a new doctrine emerges.

Weaver goes into the idea that modern thought has but one purpose, to keep modern man busy with endless induction. Fact has been substituted for truth and an all out attack has been launched on abstract ideas and speculative inquiry. Not much has changed since Weaver's time as both are viewed with a intellectual disdain compared to the much more popular concrete factual data.

Weaver insists modern education is walking the same path as it is "expanding by diffusion until it approaches the point of nullity." Most believe that modern man is far better educated than his predecessor, but is he really? Weaver does not believe so. Weaver addresses the "chip" always thrown into the discussion - literacy rate. It is not that people can read, but instead what they do read, and what they can learn after they have read? Those are Weaver's questions; sure, man can read, but does he?

According to Weaver, ideas have consequences and change the world. From whom those ideas come and from where they come are two very important questions. Weaver raises these and other questions in his book, and understands that culture is formed by ideas. Weaver could not have foreseen Facebook, Twitter and the many other social medias available to all of us. Will ideas spring forth out of these areas? No one knows, but one thing is for sure, the next batch of new ideas will shape our world and forever change it. From where will they come? My prayer is that Christian schools and churches will produce students and people ready to produce the next great new ideas that will truly change the world.