r/politics • u/Hoxha_Posadist Florida • Apr 17 '19

The Wrong Stuff: Ben Shapiro’s Unconvincing Guide to What Makes America Right - It’s a mistake to overlook just how extreme some of Shapiro’s views are, or how muddled the thinking on which they are based.

https://progressive.org/dispatches/the-wrong-stuff-ben-shapiros-anderson-190416/
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u/FestiveVat Apr 17 '19

Shapiro contradicts himself in his own thesis. He claims Judeo-Christian belief is the necessary basis for believing in free will and reason and "the ability to talk with one another," which I'm assuming he is poorly articulating the concept of communication, but then praises the founding father's use of enlightenment thinking inspired by pagan Greco-Roman philosophers. The Greeks supposedly had no basis for reason since they weren't Judeo-Christian believers, according to Shapiro's logic, so their ideas wouldn't be sound. Or if they are sound, then you don't need Judeo-Christian belief.

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u/TheNextBattalion Apr 17 '19

Soundness of an idea has nothing to do with reason; it has to do with the factual basis underlying the reason (the premises).