Balkinization: Public Reason is now open to public reason

Comments:

I object!: "Thesisism....."

Cheers,

# posted by

paul johnson wrote in modern times and intellectuals...
one of the principal lessons of our tragic century which has seen so many millions of innocent lives sacrificed in schemes to improve the lot of humanity is this, BEWARE INTELLECTUALS, not merely should they be kept well away from the levers of power, they should also be objects of particular suspicion when they seek to offer collective advise, beware committees conferences and leagues of intellectuals, distrust their public statements issued from their serried ranks, discount their verdicts on political leaders and important events. For intellectual far from being highly individualistic and non conformist people follow certain regular patterns of behavior, taken as a group they are often ultra conformist within the circles formed by those whose approval they seek and value, that is what makes them en masse so dangerous, for it enables them to create climates of opinion and prevailing orthodoxes which themselves often generate irrational and destructive causes of action. Above all we must at all times remember what intellectuals habitually forget that people matter more than concepts and must come first, the worst of all despotisms is the heartless tyranny of ideas.

# posted by

Unknown : 1:10 PM

Vincent:

I'd be careful about taking that advice to heart, since it was obviously written by an intellectual.

# posted by

PMS_CC : 1:55 PM

John Ralson Saul makes several points similar to Vincent in Voltaire's Bastards. There are undoubtedly some writers without the necessary academic credentials or specialization who could contribute great things to this site.

Art and literature have been increasingly produced for smaller and smaller academic and critical communities with the result that they have become all but inaccessible to "ordinary" mortals. Not to mention irrelevant.

One of the reasons I like
Balkinization is that it is pretty approachable.

One of the central causes of civic disengagement is a surrender to a tyranny of expertise.

# posted by

Spot : 2:16 PM

I think open blogs are very common, albiet not usually referred to as such.

Usually they're in the form of discussion boards or or forums.

I regularly post on a number of political or legal related discussion boards. On most of them anyone who has participated long enough to gain the required standing may post a new article.

Although, the idea of a discussion board where there is a substantial requirement to post is an interesting idea. It would concieveably lead to much higher quality discussion among the primary posters.

# posted by

Unknown : 3:11 PM

"Our only restrictions are that participants must have completed their Ph.D. studies in a relevant discipline and be full-time professional academics working in political philosophy or theory."

This says a lot about how our political culture functions, even at its self-proclaimed summit. I've written on public reason here at Balkinization, been thanked for what I had to say, even drew a concurrence on the topic from a Harvard philosophy professor. Yet I don't qualify to take part in "Public Reason." Why is unimportant, and I feel no great loss. What matters is that this site is about as accurately branded as Fox News. It is an outlet for academics who can't answer to anyone outside their circle and so won't: a cloister with a picture window.

The site meets a professional need. Whether it serves public reason is another matter, one the site will never broach. The insulation resembles what I encountered on the subject of how Senators should question judicial nominees in light of a Supreme Court precedent squarely on point, as I describe just below under Chris Eisgruber's "What the Senate Should Do?" Both this and that comment strike the same chord, on the hazards of leaving the matter of our governance in "the best of hands."

# posted by

occasional observer : 5:05 PM

I've always said he that can't do, teach.
hal

# posted by

Unknown : 5:41 PM

I am the community manager at www.pronetos.com, we are providing a collaboration and networking venue for professors, researchers and graduate students. The community is creating self-defining groups that are interested in developing a discussion in particular disciplines. These are in effect "open blogs" that allow participants to interact with there peers from across the globe.

# posted by

skeptic : 10:07 PM

What in the hell is "open" or "public" about this blog if it is not open to comments from all?

# posted by

Larry Fafarman : 8:58 AM

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# posted by

Unknown : 9:39 AM