Will Wilkinson - Latest Comments in Blame It on Gerald Dworkin for Blaming It on Ayn Rand

Re: Blame It on Gerald Dworkin for Blaming It on Ayn Rand

Jud Dorvits — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 09:14:58 -0000

If I fail to keep up competently with either of these genuinely accomplished scholars, they will be able to expose my failings in real time.

Brian Leiter is obviously afraid that he wouldn't be able to do this; that's why he pretends to be too mortally offended (he, the guy who denounces civility) to enter into a discussion with you.

Re: Blame It on Gerald Dworkin for Blaming It on Ayn Rand

strangedoctrines — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:35:37 -0000

Well, first, as should have been clear from my de Guarney crack, "compelling" isn't really the word I would use. Let's just say I find laying the entire financial crisis at the foot of Ayn Rand (via Alan Greenspan) a nonfrivolous bit of synecdoche.

Second, if the CRA had played the causal role in the global financial meltdown that unregulated derivatives did, then yeah, I suppose I might find the arguments roughly equally compelling (though I'm not sure I know who is supposed to play the starring roles of Greenspan and Rand in this analogy).

Re: Blame It on Gerald Dworkin for Blaming It on Ayn Rand

KipEsquire — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 19:35:48 -0000

You realize I hope that this comment proves the point of the comment it was trying to correct.

Re: Blame It on Gerald Dworkin for Blaming It on Ayn Rand

Bobcat — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 17:51:19 -0000

Probably people in political theory, but I imagine that's it.

Re: Blame It on Gerald Dworkin for Blaming It on Ayn Rand

rsporter — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 15:55:20 -0000

Well, yes, I was joking, and attempting to be ironical. But I do wonder how many people outside of philosophy know Dworkin.

Re: Blame It on Gerald Dworkin for Blaming It on Ayn Rand

Bobcat — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 15:23:36 -0000

I think you're just joking, but for the record, Davis is very good, and lots of people know Gerry Dworkin.

Re: Blame It on Gerald Dworkin for Blaming It on Ayn Rand

Bobcat — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 15:22:27 -0000

Well, Leiter is no doubt someone who takes credentials very seriously. Moreover, I think implicit support of Dworkin's point is given by the fact that Leiter approvingly gives it netspace on his blog. These two factors together give evidence for the inference that Leiter has no problem with Dworkin's remarks, and most likely endorses them.

As for Will's condescending claim that it's embarrassing for a professional philosopher like Dworkin to say what he said, what he really getting at was the fact that Dworkin is a professional philosopher--not a professional economist. What's embarrassing is that he goes well beyond his specialty, not that he's a credentialed philosopher who says dumb things.

Dworkin's claim runs: "it is frankly embarrassing that Will Wilkinson, a professional—umm—dropout from a Ph.D program in philosophy, attributes the views expressed to Brian Leiter." I grant that Dworkin was parodying Wilkinson's original line, but in this case there is no claim that Wilkinson was going beyond his expertise. He just wanted to make fun of the fact that Wilkinson dropped out of a Ph.D. program.

Re: Blame It on Gerald Dworkin for Blaming It on Ayn Rand

willwilkinson — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 11:55:22 -0000

meta, Your comment is in the thread in the next post down. I never delete comments, unless they're duplicates, or the commenter requests it.

Re: Blame It on Gerald Dworkin for Blaming It on Ayn Rand

Usyless — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 10:57:53 -0000

Am I to take it that you find the "Blame racial justice" argument compelling too?

Re: Blame It on Gerald Dworkin for Blaming It on Ayn Rand

bjk — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 10:30:21 -0000

This is embarrassing.

http://static.flickr.com/28/47632485_b01ff05bfc...

Re: Blame It on Gerald Dworkin for Blaming It on Ayn Rand

metanaturalists — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 10:15:53 -0000

Umm, I wrote a comment yesterday and today I see it's gone. There is a place for me to link my website to my name. Was it my criticism of the blogs by Leiter, Dworkin and yourself that got my comment removed; or was it adding my blog link inside the message?

Re: Blame It on Gerald Dworkin for Blaming It on Ayn Rand

Chuck — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 09:48:44 -0000

Such savage and merciless sarcasm is uncalled for (but hilarious nonetheless).

Re: Blame It on Gerald Dworkin for Blaming It on Ayn Rand

R.A. — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 09:32:03 -0000

You should show more respect for Brian Leiter, since he is one of the most famous philosophers in the world. He SHOULD win the Schock prize at some point! Unfortunately the people who make that award seem to neglect the most intellectually demanding areas of philosophy, which, of course, are the areas where Professor Leiter has obtained his major results.

Re: Blame It on Gerald Dworkin for Blaming It on Ayn Rand

strangedoctrines — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 07:54:44 -0000

Let me first buttress you're point, Usyless. Dworkin doesn't only "ignor[e] the many very anti-free--market policy decisions" of Greenspan. He also ignores the many other sources of free-market ideology. ("Vincent de Gournay caused this collapse!")

That being said, the following seem straightforwardly true:
1. Unregulated derivatives figure prominently in the current crisis.
2. Greenspan's views figure prominently in the lack of regulation on derivatives.
3. Ayn Rand's views figure prominently in the development of Greenspan's views.

These observations seem salient enough to sustain Dworkin's one-liner. How deadly serious would I take the analysis? Probably not seriously enough to call it "hackery."

Re: Blame It on Gerald Dworkin for Blaming It on Ayn Rand

rsporter — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 03:41:27 -0000

Gerald Dworkin is just angry because no one knows who he is and because he's stuck in Davis.

But seriously, J.M. Keynes never formally studied economics, therefore he's was an idiot.

Re: Blame It on Gerald Dworkin for Blaming It on Ayn Rand

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 02:05:04 -0000

Leiter wasn't the one who made the "dropout from a Ph.D program" remark; It was Dworkin. Besides, I don't see how citing examples of people who moved onto successful careers in academic philosophy without PhDs is relevant here; I don't recall any claim being made about the necessity of PhDs for anything. I took Dworkin's retort as more of a response to Will's condescending claim that it's embarrassing for a "professional philosopher" to say such-and-such. In my opinion, the snarky tone of Will's initial post -- in addition to the gross misattribution -- pretty much invited the kind of snarky replies Dworkin and Leiter gave.

Re: Blame It on Gerald Dworkin for Blaming It on Ayn Rand

Stuart — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 01:37:46 -0000

Leiter appears to be the type of person who is horribly insecure and compensates for it by insulting those who disagree with him, accompanied by a flash of credentials. He's a well-known uncivil shithead, despite his accomplishments and despite (so far as appears) his being a pretty good teacher. He's an obviously childish fool, uncomfortable outside the little pond of like-thinkers he swims in usually.

He won't dare debate you, Will. He's a bully and he can't stand being challenged where he might actually lose.

Re: Blame It on Gerald Dworkin for Blaming It on Ayn Rand

Usyless — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 00:15:29 -0000

Really, the actual case is actually even worse than the CRA example. They'd be more similar if it were additionally the case that CRA supporters were actually rabidly anti-civil rights in other areas, and if properly taking racial equality into account might have prevented the crisis.

Re: Blame It on Gerald Dworkin for Blaming It on Ayn Rand

Usyless — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:43:03 -0000

I'm not sure what you mean. I don't see anything especially unfair or ad hominem in Will's response. He seems to understand just fine that the original post focuses on Greenspan's fondness for unregulated derivatives (his "bit of an anti-regulatory bent relative to Alan Blinder"). But that's precisely the point. Dworkin takes this as a sign of Greenspan's adherence to Randian capitalist ideals, and concludes that those ideals were to blame (sorry, "a major factor") for the economic crisis, while ignoring the many very anti-free-market policy decisions Greenspan and others made which were far more fundamental to the collapse. It would be similar to someone singling out the Community Reinvestment Act as a contributing factor to the prevalence of risky lending, noting that some of its authors were interested in civil rights, and concluding that the ideals of racial justice are to blame for current market troubles. Will's response seems entirely appropriate.

Re: Blame It on Gerald Dworkin for Blaming It on Ayn Rand

strangedoctrines — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:10:18 -0000

Jeebus. Okay, pretty ridiculous ad hominem in the followup by Leiter and Dworkin. (They might have taken notice of the relation between 'hackery' and bullocks, contingent though it is.) But you drew first blood here, Will. Read the original post again. The first two paragraphs claim nothing more than that Greenspan had what appears now to have been an inordinate fondness for unregulated derivatives. Your response was no more fair or proportionate than Leiter-Dworkin's.

Re: Blame It on Gerald Dworkin for Blaming It on Ayn Rand

Bobcat — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:20:42 -0000

I'm shocked Leiter hasn't yet called out Kripke for his lack of a Ph.D. And when Leiter was at Michigan, did he point out that one of the professors there, David Hills (who has a shockingly encyclopedic knowledge of the whole of philosophy) also didn't have a Ph.D.?

Re: Blame It on Gerald Dworkin for Blaming It on Ayn Rand

GU — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:01:16 -0000

Leiter is an odd duck. One the one hand, he does a great service to potential philosophy students with his philosophical gourmet rankings, and the legal academic community with his Leiter's Law Reports blog. On the other hand, if you (1) disagree with Leiter's political views and (2) mention his name, he will publicly attack in a very snarky, passive-aggressive manner.

One of my philosophy professors met Leiter while doing a post-doc at Texas, and he said something like "yeah, Leiter is nice, but don't get on his bad side, he will make it his mission to destroy you."

Re: Blame It on Gerald Dworkin for Blaming It on Ayn Rand

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:44:14 -0000

Wow. Usyless makes an extremely important point above. Leiter changed what he wrote---from "incompetent" to "better"? He is utterly shameless--not to mention dishonest. (Not to mention guilty of the sort of thing for which he repeatedly takes others to task). You really ought not let this guy off the hook.

Re: Blame It on Gerald Dworkin for Blaming It on Ayn Rand

GilM — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:39:03 -0000

I think Dworkin was trying to make a clever reference to Will's "Naomi Klein/J. Edgar Hoover-like wishful ideological free association."

Unfortunately, it wasn't very clever.

Re: Blame It on Gerald Dworkin for Blaming It on Ayn Rand

mari dupont — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:34:18 -0000

Oh God, don't let them on your show, it'll be unwatchable---after 5 minutes your entire audience will have fled to Drudge to check out the latest decapitation. Plus, they'll refuse to address the actual issue, instead spending the entire hour making irrelevant references to Nietzsche and sarcastic jabs at Will's lack of a Ph.D., as if that somehow disqualified him from knowing anything at all. Plus academics always sit way too close to the camera and end up looking like giant Mr. Potato Heads.