Ideas Have Consequences

infobox Book |
name = Ideas Have Consequences
orig title =
translator =


author = Richard M. Weaver
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Philosophical
publisher = University of Chicago Press
release_date = 1948
media_type = Print (Paperback)
pages = 190
isbn = ISBN 0226876802
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"Ideas Have Consequences" is a philosophical work by Richard M. Weaver, published in 1948. The book is largely comprised of a treatise on the deleterious effects that the doctrine of nominalism has had on Western Civilization since it gained prominence in the High Middle Ages, followed by a prescription of a course of action through which Weaver believes the West might be rescued from its decline.

Epistemology and approach

Weaver's philosophy shares an epistemological orientation with existentialism in that it posits that the axioms underlying all human belief systems are ultimately arbitrary (in the sense that they cannot be derived, or anchored in something anterior) and are thus a product of the exercise of ultimate choice rather than empirical evidence.

Weaver thus bases his attack against nominalism on historical analogy and the teleological implications, or "consequences" of such a world view.

It is important, however, to distinguish this approach from that of historicism, which contends that history develops in organic, deterministic cycles. Weaver emphasizes his position that the cause of apparent patterns in the decline of civilizations is recurrent, unintelligent choice.

The decline of the West

Weaver attributes the beginning of the Western decline to the adoption of nominalism (or the rejection of the notion of absolute truth) in the late Scholastic period. The chief proponent of this philosophical revolution was William of Ockham.

The consequences of this revolution, Weaver contends, were the gradual erosion of the notions of distinction and hierarchy, and the subsequent enfeebling of the Western mind's capacity to reason. These effects in turn produced all manner of societal ills, decimating Western art, education and morality.

As examples of the most recent and extreme consequences of this revolution, Weaver offers the cruelty of the Hiroshima bombing, the meaninglessness of modern art, America's cynicism and apathy in the face of the just war against Nazism, and the rise of what he terms "The Great Stereopticon".

The Great Stereopticon

Weaver gives the name "The Great Stereopticon" to what he perceives as a rising, emergent construct which serves to manipulate the beliefs and emotions of the populace, and ultimately to separate them from their humanity via "the commodification of truth".

Here, notably, Weaver echos the sentiments of C. S. Lewis in his book The Abolition of Man, (which was written nearly contemporaneously with "Ideas Have Consequences"), and anticipates the modern critique of consumerism.

Prescription

Weaver concludes his book by proposing that deliberate measures might be taken to begin the regeneration of Western civilization. Among these, he proposes that language be reinvested with value, and that the right to private property, which he dubs "the last metaphysical right", be maintained, among other things because it provides a material basis for human sustenance and thus furnishes an individual (as it did Henry David Thoreau) with the means to be independent from a corrupt system.

Edition in print

*ISBN 0226876802 North American paperback
*Blackstone Audiobooks, 1997 audio cassette tape: ISBN 0786106409