Politics as Art: Isaiah Berlin against the utopian "social engineers" | Rodrigo Constantino - VEJA.com
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Sociology was born with Auguste Comte, the positivist who saw society as malleable organism that followed natural laws. Arose "social engineers". There were many who tried to bring the laws of natural science to the humanities, often with disastrous results. Universal abstractions and theories saks off fifth encountered a major obstacle in the way: the human unpredictability.
Utopias reject this characteristic of human societies. The frantic search for a "political science" as there is physics or chemistry, has already brought enough disgrace to the world. But it is not an idea that easily disappears. Rightfully so, highlighted saks off fifth long passages from an essay by the philosopher Isaiah Berlin on the political insight in this book's sense of reality. I hope to contribute to the discussions and debates about politics in our country and in our time.
The most ambitious and extreme deterministic scientists - Holbach, Helvetius, La Mettrie - thought that, given sufficient knowledge of the universal laws of human nature and social behavior, and a sufficient amount of knowledge about the state of human beings in a certain time particular, it would be possible to calculate scientifically as these human beings, or at least large groups of humans - companies or entire classes - would behave under another given set of circumstances.
The philosophers saks off fifth of the eighteenth century scientific inclination believed saks off fifth passionately in these laws; they tried to explain human behavior entirely in terms of identifiable effects of education, the natural environment and the likely outcomes of the game of appetites and passions. However, this approach has shown to explain saks off fifth only a very small part of the actual behavior of human beings in times when it seemed to need more explanation.
Messianic preachers - prophets saks off fifth - as Saint-Simon, Comte, dogmatic thinkers such as Hegel, Marx, all tried to fill the gap left by the failure of the philosophers of the eighteenth century to build a science of proper and successful society. Each of these new apostles of the nineteenth century introduced its claim to exclusive possession of the truth. What they all had in common was the belief that there is a great model and a single universal method of grasping it, statesmen saks off fifth whose knowledge would have saved many mistakes and humanity of many gruesome tragedies.
From this point of view, the political savvy would never be more than a matter of instinct, scent, sudden illuminations and non-analyzable brilliant flashes; instead build would henceforth on the fundamentals of indubitable saks off fifth knowledge.
Those who would apply the social engineers; the mysterious art of government would lose its mystery; could be taught, learned, applied; it was a matter of professional competence and expertise.
Perhaps no one has contributed as much to undermine confidence in the possibility of a science of human relationships as trustworthy the great tyrants of our day - Lenin, Stalin, Hitler. If belief in the laws of history and "scientific socialism" really helped Lenin and Stalin, helped them less as a form of knowledge than as fanatical faith, so that almost any dogma can help certain men, justifying ruthless acts and suppressing doubts and scruples.
To capture this sense the situation is necessary saks off fifth to see, to experience a kind of direct contact, almost sensual with relevant data, not merely recognize its general characteristics, classify them and reason about them, or analyze them, draw conclusions and formulate theories on them.
A sense for what is qualitative rather than quantitative is, for what is specific rather than general; a kind of direct acquaintance, distinct from the ability to describe, calculate or infer; which, in various way, is called human wisdom, imaginative understanding, insight, perceptiveness, and by extension, of intuition (which dangerously suggests some magic college), as opposed to the markedly different virtues - they are very large - the knowledge theoretical, academic specialty erudiç
Search News Subscribe SEE SEE Science Economics Brazil World Health Education Sport Entertainment Digital Life Infographics Lists SEE See SP Themes Subscribe saks off fifth SEE Elections 2014 Formula 1 Enem and Vestibular Ukraine Project Syndicate SP See All Videos Subscribe SEE Videos Gallery Infographics SP See Pictures Subscribe SEE Videos Gallery Infographics See SP Columnists Subscribe SEE Reinaldo Azevedo Lauro Jardim Nunes Ricardo Augusto Fernanda Setti Furquim All columnists See SP
Sociology was born with Auguste Comte, the positivist who saw society as malleable organism that followed natural laws. Arose "social engineers". There were many who tried to bring the laws of natural science to the humanities, often with disastrous results. Universal abstractions and theories saks off fifth encountered a major obstacle in the way: the human unpredictability.
Utopias reject this characteristic of human societies. The frantic search for a "political science" as there is physics or chemistry, has already brought enough disgrace to the world. But it is not an idea that easily disappears. Rightfully so, highlighted saks off fifth long passages from an essay by the philosopher Isaiah Berlin on the political insight in this book's sense of reality. I hope to contribute to the discussions and debates about politics in our country and in our time.
The most ambitious and extreme deterministic scientists - Holbach, Helvetius, La Mettrie - thought that, given sufficient knowledge of the universal laws of human nature and social behavior, and a sufficient amount of knowledge about the state of human beings in a certain time particular, it would be possible to calculate scientifically as these human beings, or at least large groups of humans - companies or entire classes - would behave under another given set of circumstances.
The philosophers saks off fifth of the eighteenth century scientific inclination believed saks off fifth passionately in these laws; they tried to explain human behavior entirely in terms of identifiable effects of education, the natural environment and the likely outcomes of the game of appetites and passions. However, this approach has shown to explain saks off fifth only a very small part of the actual behavior of human beings in times when it seemed to need more explanation.
Messianic preachers - prophets saks off fifth - as Saint-Simon, Comte, dogmatic thinkers such as Hegel, Marx, all tried to fill the gap left by the failure of the philosophers of the eighteenth century to build a science of proper and successful society. Each of these new apostles of the nineteenth century introduced its claim to exclusive possession of the truth. What they all had in common was the belief that there is a great model and a single universal method of grasping it, statesmen saks off fifth whose knowledge would have saved many mistakes and humanity of many gruesome tragedies.
From this point of view, the political savvy would never be more than a matter of instinct, scent, sudden illuminations and non-analyzable brilliant flashes; instead build would henceforth on the fundamentals of indubitable saks off fifth knowledge.
Those who would apply the social engineers; the mysterious art of government would lose its mystery; could be taught, learned, applied; it was a matter of professional competence and expertise.
Perhaps no one has contributed as much to undermine confidence in the possibility of a science of human relationships as trustworthy the great tyrants of our day - Lenin, Stalin, Hitler. If belief in the laws of history and "scientific socialism" really helped Lenin and Stalin, helped them less as a form of knowledge than as fanatical faith, so that almost any dogma can help certain men, justifying ruthless acts and suppressing doubts and scruples.
To capture this sense the situation is necessary saks off fifth to see, to experience a kind of direct contact, almost sensual with relevant data, not merely recognize its general characteristics, classify them and reason about them, or analyze them, draw conclusions and formulate theories on them.
A sense for what is qualitative rather than quantitative is, for what is specific rather than general; a kind of direct acquaintance, distinct from the ability to describe, calculate or infer; which, in various way, is called human wisdom, imaginative understanding, insight, perceptiveness, and by extension, of intuition (which dangerously suggests some magic college), as opposed to the markedly different virtues - they are very large - the knowledge theoretical, academic specialty erudiç
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