- Published on
The Parable
- Authors
- Name
- T Kane
What if ... ?
Alasdair MacIntyre in his work After Virtue provides a modern parable that, although not intended for this post-pandemic era, somehow speaks to the state of our judgment crisis:
Imagine that the natural sciences were to suffer the effects of a catastrophe. A series of environmental disasters are blamed by the general public on the scientists. Widespread riots occur, laboratories are burnt down, physicists are lynched, books and instruments are destroyed. Finally a Know-Nothing political movement takes power and successfully abolishes science teaching in schools and universities, imprisoning and executing the remaining scientists. Later still there is a reaction against this destructive movement and enlightened people seek to revive science, although
Well, we just may have arrived at such a dystopia.
Prepare for worse.