"Brilliant, the corrective we need to pull the nation back from the abyss of unreason."—Dean Koontz
A bestselling moral philosopher dissects and explodes the crazy—but deadly serious—ideas that have spread, bred, and metastasized throughout contemporary society.
What is happening to the world? Why does it seem like everyone has gone insane? Why are so many things that seemingly everyone believed the day before yesterday suddenly held to be retrograde, hateful, or even criminal? And why are things that everyone seemed to view as lunacy the day before yesterday suddenly taught or even required?
In Pandemic of Lunacy: How to Think Clearly When Everyone Around You Seems Crazy, University of Texas philosopher J. Budziszewski patiently explains the delusions that beset us. Ranging over the topics of morality and happiness, politics and government, family and sexuality, the real and the unreal, and God and religion, Budziszewski makes the case for sanity in commonsense language accessible to all.
Pandemic of Lunacy will be treasured by anyone who is troubled or confused, anyone who wonders whether the world has gone crazy or whether they have, and anyone who feels the need for a trustworthy guide in a topsy-turvy age.
Arvustused
"Pandemic of Lunacy is brilliant, the corrective we need to pull the nation back from the abyss of unreason. Too many elites and intellectuals are saturated with ideologized education that has left them withering in a drought of real knowledge and common sense. Caring guides like J. Budziszewski might bring the best of them back from the realm of false light." Dean Koontz, bestselling author
This book is simply the most complete, clear, and uncompromising account of our decaying culture's insanity that I have read yet. Peter Kreeft, professor of philosophy, Boston College
Philosophy and science go deeper than what common sense tells us, and sometimes correct it around the edges. But as thinkers like Aristotle and Aquinas knew, sound philosophy and science cannot coherently reject common sense altogether, especially in what it tells us about everyday human life. Modern thought has been plagued by one assault on common sense after another, typically grounded in simple but persistent fallacies. We need books that expose these fallacies and come to the defense of common sense. J. Budziszewski provides exactly that. Edward Feser, author, Five Proofs of the Existence of God
"J. Budziszewski offers both a subtle and wide-ranging exposition of the various individual lunacies that make up our corporate social insanity. His is a sober and shrewd voice that offers answers to our malaise. This is a profoundly helpful book for those wanting clarity in our deeply chaotic times." Carl Trueman, author, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self
Introduction:
Some Crazy Ideas Are Deadly Serious
Part I: Delusions
About Virtue and Happiness
Lunacy 1: Basic Right and Wrong Are Vague and
Equivocal
Lunacy 2: Basic Right and Wrong Are Different
for Everyone
Lunacy 3: Sometimes We Just Have to Do the Wrong
Thing
Lunacy 4: There Is No Such Thing as Good Character
Lunacy 5: Good Character Is Unnecessary for Well-Being
Part II:
Delusions About Politics and Government
Lunacy 6: There Is No Such Thing as the Common Good
Lunacy 7: We Can Attain the Common Good Without
Virtue
Lunacy 8: The Purpose of Government Is to Take
Care of All Our Needs
Lunacy 9: Scientists, Scholars, and Experts Are
Neutral Authorities
Lunacy 10: Democracy Is the Literal Rule of
the People
Part
III: Delusions About Family and Sexuality
Lunacy 11: Uncoupling Sex from Its Consequences
Has No Consequences
Lunacy 12: Both Sexes Must Make the Same Choices
Lunacy 13: Marriage Can Be Whatever We Want It
to Be
Lunacy 14: Manhood and Womanhood Can Take Any
Shapes That We Wish
Lunacy 15: Men and Women Dont Need Each Other
Part IV:
Delusions About What It Means to Be Human
Lunacy 16: Each Human Being Has His Own Nature
Lunacy 17: Human Nature Is Merely Animal
Lunacy 18: Everyone Is EvilOr Deep Down, Everyone
Is Good
Lunacy 19: Human Nature Changes
Lunacy 20: We Can Transcend Human Nature
Part V: Delusions
About What Is Real and Unreal
Lunacy 21: Reality Doesnt Have to Be Logical
or Make Sense
Lunacy 22: Each Person Has His Own Reality
Lunacy 23: Things Are Whatever We Say They Are
Lunacy 24: All That Exists Is Material
Lunacy 25: Existence Has No Meaning Unless We
Invent One
Part VI:
Delusions About God and Religion
Lunacy 26: Religion Does Not Concern the Truth
About God
Lunacy 27: We Cant Know the Truth About God
Lunacy 28: The Truth Is That There Is No God
Lunacy 29: Judging What Is True or False Is Intolerant
Lunacy 30: The Truth About God Doesnt Matter
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Standard Disclaimer
Notes
J. Budziszewski is a professor of government and philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin. Internationally recognized for his work on natural law, self-deception, happiness, and ultimate purpose, he is widely read on the unraveling and possible restoration of our common culture. Among his twenty previous books are What We Cant Not Know, How to Stay Christian in College, How and How Not to Be Happy, On the Meaning of Sex, The Line Through the Heart, The Revenge of Conscience, and a series of line-by-line commentaries on Thomas Aquinass Summa Theologiae. Married for more than five decades, a teacher for more than four, Budziszewski has two grown children and a clutch of grandchildren. His website, The Underground Thomist, is at www.undergroundthomist.org. Professor Budziszewski lives in Austin, Texas.
