Richard Bernstein, a founder of American critical theory.
by James C. Sherlock
Modern progressivism is religion, defined by Webster as “a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith.”
The critical theory progressive, that is to say the modern American progressive, rejects proudly and publicly, root and branch, both the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolutions of the 16th through 18th centuries in Europe.
Critical Theory developed into a synthesis of Marx and Freud. The Frankfurt School which birthed it studied the sources of authoritarianism. Their followers, as in much of human experience, wound up as practitioners.
By contrast, the leading lights of Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution awakenings, bravely in their time, stressed the belief that science and logic give people more understanding. And with understanding came freedom and the rights of man.
Logic is the principles of reasoning; science provides the principles of investigation and proof.
They led much of Europe, and the American colonies, to develop more successful systems of governance, economics, mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology, chemistry, and education than did tradition and religion.
One development, capitalism, has raised more people out of poverty than any economic system ever.
Some of the rest of the world followed. Some did not. Those that did, prospered, and improved the lives of billions of people.
But success in those twin intellectual revolutions came too slow for some.
To that table came two prominent 19th and 20th century experiments in rejecting the Enlightenment: communism and national socialism.
They proved the deadliest political movements in human history. Continue reading
by Hans Bader
