Showing posts with label social determinism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social determinism. Show all posts

Thursday, January 13, 2011

The myth of social determinism

George Will's recent column on the media's interpretation of the Tucson incident is as insightful as it is piercing:
A characteristic of many contemporary minds is susceptibility to the superstition that all behavior can be traced to some diagnosable frame of mind that is a product of promptings from the social environment. From which flows a political doctrine: Given clever social engineering, society and people can be perfected. This supposedly is the path to progress. It actually is the crux of progressivism. And it is why there is a reflex to blame conservatives first.
I have to agree, and not because of the particular issue at hand. This is a general intellectual tendency that has poisoned modern political philosophy.

Read the rest of the article here.