Modernism, Post-Modernism, Skepticism, and Sanity

 

Reading Toulmin’s brilliant history of modernity and the past four centuries (Cosmopolis), it becomes clear at page 190, in his conclusion, he has not been heading for the kind of middle way balance I had been hoping he was getting to, but instead, arrives back at ancient Skepticism. His rejection of Cartesian dualism and Newtonian mechanistic, materialist-reductionist views is necessary and intelligent. But his fall-back to ancient, medieval, and born-again modern Skepticism, is neither. I guess it proves once again that even the brilliant make mistakes, and frequently giant ones.

JTR,

April 4, 2020