Monday, March 23, 2009
Persuasion vs. Force by Mark Skousen
Here's an article that's pretty deep.
Too deep, in fact, to try to recap it in a few sentences...
Too deep, in fact, to try to recap it in a few sentences...
On his blog, Dr. Mark Skousen calls attention to a 1991 essay by Alfred North Whitehead:
"Sometimes a single book or even a short cogent essay can change an individual's entire outlook on life. For Christians, it is the New Testament. For radical socialists, Karl Marx' and Friedrich Engels' The Communist Manifesto is revolutionary. For libertarians, Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged is pivotal. For economists, Ludwig von Mises' Human Action can be mind-changing.
Recently I came across a little essay in a book called Adventures of Ideas, by Alfred North Whitehead, the British philosopher and Harvard professor. The essay, 'From Force to Persuasion,' had a profound effect upon me. Actually what caught my attention was a single passage on page 83. This one small excerpt in a 300-page book changed my entire political philosophy."
