VD Hanson is one of the slipperiest sophists out there.

You gotta admit tho, this guy hanson -- like all those other NR venial goofball -- woulda had to be invented by stan lee or somebody, if they hadnt voluntarily stepped forward into the public square.

Considering conservatives' belief in their own ability to define reality as is convenient for them, of course they're going to completely redefine "empiricism" as it suits them. The word itself has way too many syllables for the average New Republic reader to know better what people like Hanson are doing.

"...chain of reasoning is just so wildly illogical you can't even refute it."

This seems to nail the basic Republican communicative strategy at this time. It applies to any and all subjects at hand from HCR to state dinners, yet they continue to get airplay without serious questions or debate.

What confuses my poor wittle brain is that the government releases, oh, DOZENS of numbers every month. Unemployment rate, national debt, total employment, Feds fund rate... I just can't keep them all straight.

Lt. Col. Bob Bateman took Hanson apart nicely in a series of posts on Altercation. I got an editorial of his pulled (granted, in a Fresno paper) just by pointing out some of his truth twisting in it.

He overreaches in his hubris.

"The thing I think people should feel confident in is that I'm going to make these judgments not based on some fierce ideological pre-disposition but based on what makes sense"

In context, that's not an admirable statement, because it's just another of Obama's reiterations of a tired old DLC cliche, He's explaining why he's right and progressives are fanatics.

There may be a little of the Karl Rove/projection syndrome going on here too. It reminds me of the occasional article in my local paper quoting an opponent of gay marriage claiming that proponents are driven by "emotion" and "illogical arguments." I always think, "welcome to mirror world."

Obama:
"I'm a big believer in evidence. I'm a big believer in fact."
Hansen:
"If we have to rely on fact, we're f*c'd. And, for your information, 'empiricism' means 'empire building'. Not something Obama is good at, either""

Wow, the National Review is accusing someone else of making dishonest arguments? Talk about the pot calling the kettle a codeword for black.

Is there anyone in the public square today with a legitimate academic background that makes as many seriously stupid arguments as VDH? I mean, it's like whenever the subject of politics comes up, VDH's brain gets taken over by the parasitic twin and lives on his shoulder.

Mike

The ridiculous thing is that Hanson is a former classics professor with a Ph.D from Stanford -- he's not stupid. But if this is what his standards of critical thinking are, I can see why he's no longer teaching and his erstwhile students are certainly better off for it. This is just embarrassing.

My favorite VDH story goes back to August 2006. He was visiting at Hillsdale College in Michigan, and the weather was rainy with highs in the fifties. Ergo, global warming is a crock! At the time, we in the South were enduring a record heat wave, with weeks of triple-digit highs. I would never conclude from that that global warming is real ["Weather" and "climate" are different, after all], but VDH's "empiricism" seems utterly innocent of any standards for evaluating evidence. As a "historian," he's an embarrassment to my profession.

Victor Davis Hanson teaches at Fresno State, definitely one of the CSU campuses that qualifies as a "cow college." This should give you an idea where he ranks as an "American intellectual," i.e., back in the 10th row.

Victor Hanson is loathsome. But Obama's claim to empiricism strikes odd when juxtaposed against his frequent references to his devote theism.

Victor Davis Hanson teaches at Fresno State, definitely one of the CSU campuses that qualifies as a "cow college." This should give you an idea where he ranks as an "American intellectual," i.e., back in the 10th row.

I'm a Classics professor who works in ancient history. I agree with nothing of VDH's politics and find his political commentary dishonest and repugnant. But his scholarship in Greek history is really important. There have always been rumours about job offers from better places -- at least before he decamped to the commentariat -- but the family farm is near Fresno (as I understand it he's the fourth generation on it) and he had some connection to it that he wouldn't break. He also claimed to be committed to Fresno students, who are mostly disadvantaged and whom he wanted to help. This last part, of course, is difficult to square with what one reads in his columns, but I know one of his colleagues at Fresno who insists that it was true. Like everyone, I suppose, VDH is complicated human being. Still, that's a stinker of a column, as most of what he writes outside of Greek history.

Exlibra you are basically full of shit. When you make a statement " empiricism means empire building" why not take the 20 seconds it takes to look up the definition of the word instead of just pulling some inane nonsense directly out of yous ass.
Oxford english dictionary-empiricism/n. the theory that all knowledge is derived from sense experience. Empiricism,which denies a priori concepts.

All this not to be confused with empirical/adj.1. based or acting onobservation or experiment, not on theory.
You sir are a buffoon.

EXLIBRA
I apologize with all humility. I was so worked up over the complete nonsense of the statement that I failed to read the context of your post.
Please except my sincere apology.

Uh, Gandalf, buddy, pal, whatever: hit the reset button on the irony detector.

shoebeacon,

Religious beliefs don't necessarily conflict with empiricism. Empiricism is not about discovering ultimate truths, but about a more pragmatic goal of determining cause-effect relationships: If I do X in circumstance Y, then the result will likely be Z. If I observe symptom A, it most likely is caused by disease B. The existence or non-existence of God or heaven is mostly irrelevant to such empirical questions.

Of course, there are some religious beliefs that are subject to empirical tests, such as the belief in the efficacy of prayers, or the belief that disease (or natural disaster) is punishment for sin, or that good fortunate is reward for virtue.

passerby: "I'm a Classics professor who works in ancient history. I agree with nothing of VDH's politics and find his political commentary dishonest and repugnant. But his scholarship in Greek history is really important. There have always been rumours about job offers from better places -- at least before he decamped to the commentariat -- but the family farm is near Fresno (as I understand it he's the fourth generation on it) and he had some connection to it that he wouldn't break. He also claimed to be committed to Fresno students, who are mostly disadvantaged and whom he wanted to help. This last part, of course, is difficult to square with what one reads in his columns, but I know one of his colleagues at Fresno who insists that it was true. Like everyone, I suppose, VDH is complicated human being. Still, that's a stinker of a column, as most of what he writes outside of Greek history."

Hanson's public arguments are an unholy combination of brain-dead illogic and massive ignorance. When proven wrong, he doubles down. And this is one public matters where people can see his errors, and under his own name.

Given that he has shown some serious character/intelligence deficits, his work in classics can only be trusted to the point where it has been 100% verified, word by word.

....and of course the Bush administration was giving a respectful nod to empiricism when it tried to get burger-flipping reclassified as a manufacturing job, so the slippage in the manufacturing sector wouldn't seem quite so horrible.

It's simple to make an analysis based on measurable data when you manipulate the data to make it say what you want it to say. That's not what Obama is doing, at all.