Thursday, August 12, 2021

From the nonsense that is Joseph Campbell to other things about the ancient past

2 comments:

  1. Gee . . . even Steven Weinberg said of multiverse theory in physics that he preferred "a single history" that could unify gravity and quantum theory. I doubt that Campbell thought of himself as a heavyweight scholar, and the efficiency of the author's essay in dismembering his vision seems to raise a whole other host of questions about intellectual integrity. Lessons to be learned in writing criticism, eh? I remember the tweet posted here after the Jan 6th capitol riot in which an academic journalist called the event "performative". Really? When peoples' lives are threatened? Losing the forest for the trees. Bond sounds equally clouded in her opening paragraphs. Mad that work she considers deeply inferior found a huge audience, and unwilling to suggest (at least in this essay) what she actually contributes to a different viewpoint for the public in her own scholarship. Low hanging fruit is the lazy way out.

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    1. I've never read Campbell nor had any interest in doing so. But I've known about his shoddy scholarship for over four decades.

      Question's about intellectual integrity? Whose, Campbell's or the scholars who question his work?

      Do you really think the "public" has a right to believe what they want to believe regardless of the truth, as best we can determine it? Do you also think that the people who charged the capitol on Jan 6th are to be excused because they really believed that the election had been stolen from Trump?

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