Will Wilkinson, a former philosophy graduate student and libertarian zealot, has ripped into Jerry Dworkin's attributing Greenspan's disastrous economic policies to the influence of the pseudo-philosopher Ayn Rand as mere "hackery" (though Wilkinson attributes the offending view and the "hackery", oddly, to me, a "professional philosopher"). Jerry replies:
Since at the top of the post Wilkinson is referencing it clearly states “Jerry Dworkin (UC Davis) writes” it is frankly embarrassing that Will Wilkinson, a professional—umm—dropout from a Ph.D program in philosophy, attributes the views expressed to Brian Leiter. In an even more embarrassing Calvin Klein/ Herbert Hoover-like wishful ideological free association it turns out that the only meaning the OED gives for “hackery” is “The common native bullock-cart of India used for the transport of goods” It is still more embarrassing—if such is possible—to confuse “pinning” the financial crisis on someone as opposed to the actual claim made in my post that Rand can be plausibly viewed as “an important cause’of the crisis we find ourselves in. This leaves plenty of room for Wilkinson’s only other candidate for the crisis—Bill Clinton
Some philosophers may know Mr. Wilkinson from his all-too-frequent appearances on Blogging-Heads TV. I think BHTV is great, but they really need to have better interlocutors for the philosophers on the show.
And I certainly think Jerry Dworkin's point in the original post was apt.
A FINAL THOUGHT: Mr. Wilkinson--having accused Dworkin of "embarrassing...free associations" and "hackery"--now calls for a "civil discussion" (too late, Will), and suggests we debate him on BHTV. (Is that "Bobble Heads" TV, asked Jerry?) It appears he doesn't realize that he's not being taken seriously (he might think about why--some of the commenters on his original post might help him), though one might have thought Jerry's rejoinder would have made that clear. In any case, someone interested in a "civil discussion" with grown-ups might start by taking responsibility for the comments section of his blog which, judging from the thread linked above, is now awash in juvenile stupidity, insults and lies directed at Jerry and me. Class act, Mr. Wilkinson.
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