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Quote by Richard M. Weaver

“The conclusion, so vexatious to democracy, that wisdom and not popularity qualifies for rule may be forced upon us by the peril in atomic energy.”

Quote by Richard M. Weaver

Book:Ideas Have Consequences: Expanded Edition

Work

Ideas Have Consequences: Expanded Edition

This book delves into the profound influence of various philosophical concepts on the development of society and culture, offering an in-depth analysis of their historical and contemporary significance. more

Author

Richard M. Weaver

Richard M. Weaver was an influential American philosopher, born on March 3, 1910, and died on April 1, 1963. He is known for his profound insights into language, culture, and political philosophy, particularly for his work 'The Language of Art', which explored the nature of language and its relationship to reality. more

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“Beneath the surface of repartee and mock seriousness, [Plato's Phaedrus] is asking whether we ought to prefer a neuter form of speech to the kind which is ever getting us aroused over things and provoking an expense of spirit.”

Kind Form Spirit Ought Speech Asking Surface Expenses Provoking Plato Seriousness Mock Beneath The Surface Plato S Repartee

Book:The Ethics of Rhetoric

Source: The Ethics of Rhetoric

“Any utterance is a major assumption of responsibility, and the assumption that one can avoid that responsibility by doing something to language itself is one of the chief considerations of the Phaedrus.”

Language Responsibility Majors Chiefs Assumption Consideration Utterance

Book:The Ethics of Rhetoric

Source: The Ethics of Rhetoric

“Those who are guilty of the argumentum ad ignorantiam profess belief in something because its opposite cannot be proved ... In the realm where "prejudice" is now most an issue, it normally takes a form like this: you cannot prove by the method of statistics and quantitative measurement that men are not equal. Therefore all men are equal. ... You cannot prove again by the methods of science that one culture is higher than another. Therefore the culture of the Digger Indians is just a good as that of Muncie, Indiana, or thirteenth-century France.”

Men Form Culture Belief Issues Century Higher Prove Equal Opposites Prejudice Method Guilty France Realms Statistics Ads Measurement Indiana

Author:Richard M. Weaver

“There are some despotic governments so filled with a feeling of insecurity that they regard the free life of culture as a threat to their existence. ... On the other extreme is the kind of popular government which is so distrustful of all forms of distinction that it sees even in the cultivated individual a menace to its existence. Such states are likely to maintain a pressure which discourages cultural endeavor, although the pressure may be exerted through social channels.”

Kind May States Feelings Government Form Culture Individual Social Existence Pressure Regard Filled Threat Extremes Distinction Insecurity Endeavor Discouraging Menace Free Life

Author:Richard M. Weaver

“No one can take culture seriously if he believes that it is only the uppermost of several layers of epiphenomena resting on a primary reality of economic activity.”

Ifs Believe Reality Culture Economic Activity Primaries Layers

Author:Richard M. Weaver

“Most [people] see education only as the means by which a person is transported from one economic plane to a higher one.”

People Mean Persons Economic Higher Planes

Book:In defense of tradition: collected shorter writings of Richard M. Weaver, 1929-1963

Source: In defense of tradition: collected shorter writings of Richard M. Weaver, 1929-1963

“Poetry offers the fairest hope of restoring our lost unity of mind.”

Mind Lost Offers Unity Restoring

Book:Ideas Have Consequences: Expanded Edition

Source: Ideas Have Consequences: Expanded Edition

“Drill in exact translation is an excellent way of disposing the mind against that looseness and exaggeration with which the sensationalists have corrupted our world. If schools of journalism knew their business, they would graduate no one who could not render the Greek poets.”

Ifs World Way Mind School Poet Journalism Excellent Greek Our World Graduates Translations Exaggeration Drills Looseness

Book:Ideas Have Consequences

Source: Ideas Have Consequences

“Until the world perceives that "good" cannot be applied to a thing because it is our own, and "bad" because it is another's, there is no prospect of realizing community.”

World Realizing Community Perceive

Book:Ideas Have Consequences: Expanded Edition

Source: Ideas Have Consequences: Expanded Edition

“Many of us who read the literature of social science as laymen are conscious of being admitted at a door which bears the watchword "scientific objectivity" and of emerging at another door which looks out upon a variety of projects for changing, renovating, or revolutionizing society. In consequence, we feel the need of a more explicit account of how the student of society passes from facts to values or statements of policy.”

Source: In defense of tradition: collected shorter writings of Richard M. Weaver, 1929-1963