Robby George’s Beef with Pete Singer
Jonathan Rowe on Jun 13th 2006
What might surprise you about this article is not that George and Singer have their differences, but that, until now, the two were cordially fond of one another. Though, Singer may have done something to sour their personal relationship. I think George, as much of a nice fellow he seems to be in person, is a bit of a religious fanatic…well, more than bit (though he dresses his religiosity up in the neutral-universalistic language of the Thomistic natural law). But at the same time, I find Pete Singer and Cornell West (two other of Princeton’s public intellectuals), just as extreme on the other side of various issues. Princeton needs more Robby George’s to balance out the extreme leftyism that dominates colleges and universities.
What’s interesting, as the article notes, is the way that George tries to get involved in team-teaching with these leftists with whom he disagrees. George has initiated the idea of team teaching with both Singer and West. (And has team taught with other lesser well known leftist public intellectuals.)
As a libertarian I don’t particularly like right-wing religiously or Thomistically conservative dogma being thrown in my face (did NOT have much of that in college and grad. school). But I also don’t like having neo-Marxist radical lefty dogma being thrown in my face either (had lots of that in higher education).
If I were President of these Universities, I’d make all of these lefties team teach with a Robby George for balance.
Filed in The Basement
Robert George is absolutely a religious fanatic, but as you say, Singer and West are equally nutty. The thing about West, and I’ve mentioned this before, is that he’s rarely coherent. I’ve seen him on TV at least a dozen times and listening to him speak is like listening to someone trying really, really hard to sound intellectual. He strings together a lot of big words, but they don’t belong together and he just comes off sounding stupid.
West is the typical post-modern leftist deconstructionist Marxist intellectual about which Sandefur and I blogged in our two earlier posts.
West speaks in intellectual jive. Although I must say, I’m never bored by his speeches.
Cornel West is not so much an intellectual as a showman. He always puts on a fine show. To paraphrase what someone once said of Reagan, Cornel West is a showman playing an intellectual.
[...] Robert P. George, Council of Bioethics at Princeton University: “I Was Wrong About Peter Singer” (HT: Positive Liberty). George has always defended Singer. Not his opinions, since Singer supports bestiality and the killing of infants, but his integrity in always representing his opponents accurately. See what made him change his mind. [...]