Critique
of Patriarchal Reason by Arthur
Evans, Frank
Pietronigro (Illustrator)
An explosive indictment of analytic philosophy
and science. Arthur Evans exposes the patriarchal biases
underlying modern "rationality." Evans shows how these
biases have infected formal logic, higher mathematics, and the
scientific method. He demonstrates the harmful impact they have
had on women, gay people, artists, indigenous societies, and the
natural environment. In place of these biases, he offers a new,
liberating view of the role of reason in human life. Among the
many thinkers discussed in the book is Ludwig Wittgenstein. A
surprising connection is uncovered between Wittgenstein's theories
of logic and language on one hand, and his conflicted attitude
toward his homosexuality on the other.
Critique of Patriarchal Reason stands as
a shining exemplar of grassroots philosophy." -- Ruth
Robson, Lambda Book Report.
Evan's book is written in an accessible style,
and includes original illustrations by San Francisco artist Frank
Pietronigro. This joint project in philosophy and art is an award
winner from the San Francisco Art Commission. Critique of
Patriarchal Reason opens the window of Western philosophy.
Read it, and you will discover a whole new way of looking at your
own life and at the world around you.
About the Author
Arthur Evans is the author of The God of Ecstasy
(St.
Martin's, 1988), and Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture
(Fag Rag Books, 1978).
Excerpted from Critique of Patriarchal
Reason by Arthur:
Wittgenstein tried the classic strategy of
flight from the flesh through spiritualization of the intellect.
He read ascetic writings, considered becoming a monk, and
eventually attempted a kind of psychological self-mutilation.
Hence his mystical quest for a higher meaning above the flat world
known to science was no mere intellectual endeavor. Hidden behind
this flight lay a context of powerful emotional needs. He hints at
these needs in his notebooks, where he speaks not merely of
"the mystical" but also of "the drive to the
mystical."
This kind of strategy-trying to overcome erotic
impulses by redirecting them into allegedly higher paths-is an old
chestnut for emotionally isolated closet-homosexuals with
spiritual aspirations. Not surprisingly, those who take this
tortured path are often drawn to authoritarian ideologies, while
yet engaging in secretive, compulsive, and guilt-ridden sexual
encounters on the sly. (The Catholic hierarchy is a magnet for men
thus divided against themselves; for example, the late Francis
Cardinal Spellman.) In Wittgenstein's case, maturing as he did in
pre-war Vienna, the particular authoritarian ideology to which he
turned was that of the protofascist Otto Weininger.
Wittgenstein was not alone among his compatriots
in showing a sexual context to fascist interests. A number of
self-hating (because misogynist) homosexuals of his generation
later flocked to Hitler for similar reasons. Among these men the
most notorious was the butch-posing, uniform-loving Ernst Roehm of
the S.A. Hitler found such admirers useful for a while, until he
personally led a band that killed many of them on "the Night
of the Long Knives" (June 30, 1934). Despite their initial
appeal to certain masculinist homosexuals, the Nazis suppressed
the nascent gay-rights movement in Germany. Nazi authorities
rounded up large numbers of homosexuals and sent them to death
camps, where they were forced to wear a pink triangle. It should
not be overlooked that Wittgenstein, although viewing the Nazis as
gangsters, never publicly condemned their treatment of Jews and
homosexuals.
Clear
and Queer Thinking : Wittgenstein's Development and His Relevance
to Modern Thought by Laurence Goldstein
Wittgenstein is generally regarded as a
difficult philosopher. People reading him sometimes see the glint
of a precious stone and are aware that there are diamonds to be
found if only they knew how to look. His prose can seem obscure,
yet Wittgenstein himself enjoins us to stay silent where we cannot
speak clearly, and he criticizes other philosophers for finding
queer what would seem wholly unmysterious if only they
would curb their compulsion to be misled. A main source of failure
to understand, in Wittgenstein s view, is that we do not
command a clear view of the use of our words.
Laurence Goldstein gives a straightforward and lively account of
some of the central themes of Wittgenstein s writings on
meaning, mind, and mathematics. He does this both by drawing on
Wittgenstein s work to show how his thinking developed over
time and by helping the reader gain some impression of what a
strange character Wittgenstein was for how he was is
intimately related to how and what he wrote.
Clear and Queer Thinking also brings Wittgenstein s
ideas to bear on a wide range of topics in linguistics, cognitive
science, psychology, and neuroscience and will therefore be of
interest not only to philosophers but also to linguists,
psychologists, and those working in the brain sciences.
