This book review was written by Eugene Kernes
“In modern culture everything is
relative and nothing is absolute. We
have no first principles, no ultimate values, no unshakable commitments, no
conviction that there is any final meaning to life. In the end, on any moral issue, we have no
alternative but merely to shrug our shoulders and express a preference – for
freedom or toleration if we happen to feel that way, or for tyranny and the
persecution of minorities if we happen to feel differently. As a result, our homes are without disciple,
our schools without clear purposes, our foreign policy weak and spineless. There is cynicism in our personal moralities,
opportunism in our politics, and a general sense of aimlessness and drift in
our daily lives.” – Charles
Frankel, Chapter IV: The Anxiety To Believe, Page 48
“History has to be seen as a series of achievements and
failures which are meaningful because they serve some purpose and exhibit some
truth that lies beyond history itself.
For history cannot be an end in itself.
The career of mankind is meaningless unless we see it against the
backdrop of what is timeless” – Charles Frankel, Chapter IV: The Anxiety To Believe, Page 50
“In fact, all knowledge is selective. If we insist, on the basis of this truism,
that all knowledge is therefore biased, we imply that we can never learn the
objective facts about anything until we are omniscient. More, we contradict the very idea of
knowledge. For all knowledge involves
generalizations, and therefore abstractions.
By its very nature, then, it is selective, and if it were not selective
it would not be knowledge. When we apply
the term “biased” to our beliefs merely because they are selective, we are
using the term “biased” in such a way that the distinction between being biased
and being unbiased loses all meaning.“ – Charles Frankel, Chapter VII: Can History Tell The
Trust?, Page 134
Is This An Overview?
History becomes meaningful when
compared to changes made through time.
Changes that provide information on what was effective and what was
harmful. Knowledge derived from that information
can be used to prevent further errors of judgment. Knowledge derived is always biased, always
selective. Knowledge is a tool, that can
be used to harm humankind but also improve the human condition. How that knowledge is used is part of the
social contract that enables individuals to cooperate effectively as a collective. Liberal values enable people to become aware
of their biases, to challenge the views of others, and improve society through
the competition of differences.
Caveats?
This book is about liberalism. How liberal values are effective, and the
contradictions that liberal values produced.
Correcting for the contradictions.
The claims and assumptions are based on the author’s liberal bias, which
makes liberalism seem as the favored social ideology. There is validity to various claims made, but
the claims might not be generalizable.
