Saturday, March 30, 2013

Sowell's New Book: Intellectuals and Race

There is a two-part interview of the author.  The first part is here and the second here

Intellectuals and Race is at Amazon here.

I particularly liked Sowell's discussion of David Hume and the Scots, which is held in the context of a larger discussion about the dogma of "multiculturalism" and how it holds people back.  (This is in the second half of the interview):

"AmSpec: Let’s talk about the example of David Hume and the Scots and the path they followed.

"Sowell: The role Hume played was one diametrically opposed by that played by most intellectuals as regards ethnic groups that are lagging behind. He wanted the Scots to master the English language. And that’s what they did. There were places all over Scotland that were giving lessons in English. The Scots learned that and it greatly expanded their cultural universe. I don’t know if there were any books in Gaelic in Scotland, and you were unlikely to learn chemistry or anything like that in Gaelic. The Scots came out of nowhere. They were very backward at one point. But from the middle of the 18th century to the middle of the 19th century many of the leading British intellectuals came from Scottish ancestry, including John Stuart Mill and Adam Smith."

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