I think some specificity in the identification of strengths in the work of
Peter Breggin might help me understand why he should be considered a major
player. To use the idiom of the week, he is very EZ to dismiss as a clone
of Thomas Szasz or Jeremy Rifkin. "Been there. Done that." If it's
technological, it's bad, so sayeth PB, but not WP?
Some of my colleagues are very nearly professional Calvinists. Walker
Percy sure doesn't resemble them in any way that's easy for me to identify.
I certainly enjoy and prefer "Love in the Ruins" to "The Thanatos
Syndrome." I think Tom More's confession in the former ever so much more
credible than Fr. Simon's confession in the latter. Maybe just because
my ancestors were Alsatian and think of German culture up through the 1930s
as responsible for the rearrangement and repopulation of so many of the
local cemeteries.
The rub of my concern is religious: I think I understand Tom More's
confession and sorrow over the inability to grieve over great personal
sins, and shame at the experience of having one's aging conceits exposed
are extremely familiar to me. Can anyone tell me what is religious, and
in what sense, about such experiences? Or am I right in thinking that such
sorrow and shame is a necessary precondition for religious experience, but
not the core of religious experience?
EZ
A. Edward Manier, Professor
Philosophy & History and Philosophy of Science
Reilly Center for Science, Technology and Values
314 Decio
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN 46556
(o) 219-631-6520
FAX 219-631-8209
Dept 219-631-6471
http://www.nd.edu/~amanier/index.html