Richard Weaver Ideas

The book Ideas have consequences is a well-written and informative book on how “the world is intelligible and that man is free and that those consequences we are now experiencing are the product not of biological or other necessity but of unintelligent choice.” (1) Weavers’ book is broken up into two parts to easily convey his arguments. In the first part Weaver describes the stages of social degeneration and how the choices made and believed by society have long-lasting consequences. In the second part, Weaver proposes measures he believes will correct the social degeneration taking place, and also tries to act as preventative from the repercussions we have not yet realized.
The author Richard Weaver, a teacher, writes this book in order …show more content…
He uses this notion to try and rediscover how ideas guide our actions and how these ideas are fundamental to our society. He states that systematic integrity allows us to both understand what is good, better and best and therefore we can set a course that is rooted in principle to get us there. He continues by adding that there is no separation between moralities, integrity and our everyday lives, and that the ways in which we live our lives ultimately reflect the ideas in which we believe. Weaver argues that denying the existence of truth only makes us skeptical to all notions and leads to a false interpretation of the values and meanings of life. The unmanageable amount of information that we have to learn leads to the individuals’ loss of confidence in determining the truth and acting upon it. As a believer in truth Weaver states that truth and morality are the two fundamental characteristics that laid the foundation for our existence. This paragraph contains information that I agreed and disagreed with. What I found to be correct in my eyes was how Weaver argued that the ways in which we live our lives ultimately reflect the ideas in which we believe. I believe in this statement because our daily surroundings and interactions have a long-term effect in how we shape ourselves and see and move about the world because if we live in the same town our whole life we will have only ideas particular to that town instead if we live our lives traveling the world then we will have multiple ways in which we approach a certain situation because of the multiple ways we learn and see others from different places doing it. What I disagree with here is how Weaver believes in truth, a counterargument one could use is that one choices what to believe in and that truth is not