The agency aspect of life - a feeling we have at least some control over our lives - is entirely overlooked by the social engineers. They know best. Yet they overlook the importance of feeling you have some autonomy, even if minimal. The devastation of learned helplessness, for example, is rarely …
The agency aspect of life - a feeling we have at least some control over our lives - is entirely overlooked by the social engineers. They know best. Yet they overlook the importance of feeling you have some autonomy, even if minimal. The devastation of learned helplessness, for example, is rarely discussed in Western nations despite being well understood and documented. Its antidote is to begin to take control of your life.
You make an interesting point. Opposing views about personal autonomy did constitute a major distinction among ancient Greek philosophers, but the pro-autonomy side of this tradition has been largely forgotten because (1) ancient Greek and Latin authors who debated these issues, especially those whose names aren't Plato and Aristotle, are no longer prominent in the educational curriculum; and (2) the philosophical roots of classical liberal/libertarian thought have been obscured by ignorance about where the important liberal Enlightenment thinkers got their ideas from, and by a post-Enlightenment pivot of liberals towards more skeptical or positivist views (and becoming less and less pro-autonomy in the process).
Libertarians interested in reviving the natural rights tradition tend to be afflicted by a narrow focus on Aristotle, which loses sight of a much more important debate that occurred between Epicureans, Stoics, and Skeptics in Hellenistic times (and preserved in the works of such authors as Cicero) about the relationships between psychology, virtues like justice, and duties to the state and to one's community, which in turn makes it difficult to understand the reaction against Scholasticism that informed much of the Enlightenment.
Excellent comment. Thank you for posting.
The agency aspect of life - a feeling we have at least some control over our lives - is entirely overlooked by the social engineers. They know best. Yet they overlook the importance of feeling you have some autonomy, even if minimal. The devastation of learned helplessness, for example, is rarely discussed in Western nations despite being well understood and documented. Its antidote is to begin to take control of your life.
You make an interesting point. Opposing views about personal autonomy did constitute a major distinction among ancient Greek philosophers, but the pro-autonomy side of this tradition has been largely forgotten because (1) ancient Greek and Latin authors who debated these issues, especially those whose names aren't Plato and Aristotle, are no longer prominent in the educational curriculum; and (2) the philosophical roots of classical liberal/libertarian thought have been obscured by ignorance about where the important liberal Enlightenment thinkers got their ideas from, and by a post-Enlightenment pivot of liberals towards more skeptical or positivist views (and becoming less and less pro-autonomy in the process).
Libertarians interested in reviving the natural rights tradition tend to be afflicted by a narrow focus on Aristotle, which loses sight of a much more important debate that occurred between Epicureans, Stoics, and Skeptics in Hellenistic times (and preserved in the works of such authors as Cicero) about the relationships between psychology, virtues like justice, and duties to the state and to one's community, which in turn makes it difficult to understand the reaction against Scholasticism that informed much of the Enlightenment.