The Autonomist

[JeffS]

Do you mean almost directly above? That was Jake, not me.

But you are certain welcome, Jeff, for any assistance I have rendered!

Damn! So it was. Thanks for pointing that out. I guess I shouldn't have drank that whole bottle of cough syrup!

Sorry, Jake! Good post.

[Jake]

I'm am a bit surprised by your ad-hominem attacks on Mr. Firehammer on a site supposedly dedicated to a philosophy that should teach you and others to dispense with logical fallacies.

Name-calling/labelling is not the same as an ad hominem fallacy. You may object to Atlas calling Firehammer a loon and a nut, but Atlas did give solid reasons why Firehammer's writings will not help one to study Objectivism. Atlas did not say "Firehammer should be ignored because he's a homophobe." (That would be an ad hominem fallacy).

[Plasmatic]

What Secular Enlightenment?

Now what would that, "secular Enlightenment heritage," be? The only enlightenment history tells of was primarily the work of religious men. The whole thing would most likely never have happened at all if it were not for Gutenberg's press. He happened to be a Catholic.

The entire development of modern science was primarily the work of religious men: Nicolaus Copernicus, 1473-1543 Catholic (priest), Gallileo Galilei, 1564-1642 Catholic, Johannes Kepler 1571-1630 Lutheran, William Harvey 1578-1657 Anglican (nominal), Rene Descartes 1596-1650 Catholic, Blaise Pascal 1623-1662 Jansenist, Robert Boyle 1627-1691 Anglican, Isaac Newton 1642-1727 Anglican (non-Trinitarian), Daniel Bernoulli 1700-1782 Calvinist, Antoine Laurent Lavoisier 1743-1794 Catholic, John Dalton 1766-1844 Quaker, Michael Faraday 1791-1867 Sandemanian, Louis Pasteur 1822-1895 Catholic, James Clerk Maxwell 1831-1879 Presbyterian (Anglican; Baptist), George Washington Carver 1864-1943 Christianity. If the only science we had was that developed by the, "secularists," we'd have precious little science.

What about philosophy? "Two of the most important and positively influential philosophers, Thomas Aquinas (13th century, Catholic) who reintroduced Aristotle to philosophy and John Locke (17th century Anglican) whose philosophy was largely the basis for the American revolution and Constitution."

That part of the enlightenment which was the founding of the most free and prosperous nation in the history of the world, the United States of America, was carried out entirely by religious men. Virtually every signer of the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, and Constitution of the United States of America, as well as all other delegates were a Christians. (The three Deists also referred to themselves as Christians.)

It doesn't appear there is much secular Enlightenment heritage," we need to worry about being attacked. It's difficult to attack what does not exist. We must assume these kinds of accusations are made from extreme ignorance, the only other possibility is too evil to mention.

I actually enjoy a lot of His "individualist" comments,but this is something i think is a huge misintegration.Doesn't he see that the "christian" ethics is what has been the seeds of the current state of Americas collectivist altruist state? I think he's missing the point that it was Aristotle's influence and the newly discovered philosophy of egoism that lead to the good in America.