tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16355954.post1570744280383712531..comments2024-03-15T19:54:18.063+00:00Comments on Darwinian Conservatism by Larry Arnhart: John West's DEMOCRITUS DAY IN AMERICALarry Arnharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14619785331100785170noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16355954.post-74420705682135585582007-11-23T22:14:00.000+00:002007-11-23T22:14:00.000+00:00And once again I remind you of the "malice or igno...And once again I remind you of the "malice or ignorance" question I raised a month ago <A HREF="http://darwinianconservatism.blogspot.com/2007/09/john-wests-darwin-day-in-america.html#c5424219898262863198" REL="nofollow">here</A>.<BR/><BR/>West and Weikart and their Disco Institute collaborators systematically distort evolutionary theory and the history of ideas to support a particular ideological agenda. It is not their agenda that is at issue in this present comment (though that agenda is itself problematic), it is the systematic and (in my considered opinion) purposeful distortion that is indicative of malice.<BR/><BR/>This is not merely a rhetorical issue. It potentially has real consequences in the real world. Consider this: To the extent that one's understanding of the evolutionary history of human behavior is distorted by the Disco Institutes' minions one is unable to formulate effective means of ameliorating the world's ills, because any such formulation assumes a false picture of where we are now and how we got here. By incorrectly claiming that there is a direct connection between Darwin and Hitler, Weikart misrepresents history and lowers the probability that we will learn something useful about preventing another Holocaust.<BR/><BR/>Trying to figure out how to get from A to B is impossible if your notion of how you got to A (your theory of the dynamics leading to A) and where A is (the current state of affairs) is wrong. West and his collaborators systematically and purposefully misrepresent the dynamics of the system and where A is, making it more difficult to figure out where we're going and how to deal with the effects of that journey.<BR/><BR/>RBHAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com