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SHALIZI_CHALLENGE

                                             September 14, 2021

Cosma Shalizi posed a challenge for his readers:
Can you think of an intellectual alive today off     http://bactra.org/chomsky.html
the same caliber as Bertrand Russell?


     "... I cannot think of a time since the early 1600s, at
     the latest, when the West could not boast intellectuals
     of Russell's caliber; and that Chomsky is not of that
     caliber. Surely then this cannot be the best our time
     has to offer? Surely there are other thinkers of
     greater distinction?"

     "I hope so. Name them."

     "After much thought I have been unable to do so. I have
     put the question to acquaintances on four continents,
     whose collective interests lie scattered over a
     respectably large part of the house of intellect, and
     they have been unable to do so. I should like to learn
     that they and I are merely provincial, or passéist. I
     should like to think that, unknown to me and The New
     York Times, someone is adding whole wings to that
     ancient house, not merely straightening the carpets and
     enlarging the windows. (I must, perhaps, say that my
     own talents and ambition stop at carpet-straightening.)
     I should like to think that we are not decadent, that
     the Promethean fire has not flickered out and been
     replaced by Byzantine glass jewels."


Shalizi touches on some of Bertrand Russell's virtues,
but presumes you know about him already.  If you look
almost anywhere you'll find glowing biographical sketches
like this:

       https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell/


Shalizi comments:

    "Russell's work is like a scientific instrument from the
    Enlightenment, whose craftsmanship and decoration make
    it beautiful, if not quite a work of art ..."




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