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I should have been more clear: the point here isn't to guess intentions, it's to examine the actual results of the project and its reasons for being (e.g distru

I should have been more clear: the point here isn't to guess intentions, it's to examine the actual results of the project and its reasons for being (e.g distrust in religious authority which Russell situates in the formation of Protestantism) and to identify the same ideology in thinking today. Tracing the relationship between myth and enlightenment is done in the same way we trace the relationship between the Ancient Greek epics and their philosophy, or the Protestant work ethic and capitalism.

crispinb 8y ago
Yes I understand (though I suspect the distinction between psychological & textual/ideological exegesis might be more ambiguous than you suggest). Nonetheless, it's just weaving stories and comparing interpretations, and there's no objective way to do this (or, put more psychologically, there's no route to generating agreement on the best story). Cf science, which attempts (step by step) to find methodological/algorithmic ways to expunge subjectivities (ask nature, rather than ask yourself). My (undercooked) suggestion is that an Abrams-like analysis may do a better job of showing what is lacking in the science tributary of the Enlightenment. It's not a methodological issue (rooting out ideology), it's a representational one (symbol systems yanked out of their living backdrop miss too much of the real world).