Little known outside his native Australia, David Stove was one of
the most illuminating and brilliant philosophical essayists of the
postwar era. A fearless attacker of intellectual and cultural
orthodoxies, Stove left powerful critiques of scientific
irrationalism, Darwinian theories of human behavior, and
philosophical idealism. He was also an occasional essayist of
considerable charm and polemical snap. Stove's writing is both
rigorous and immensely readable. It is, in the words of Roger
Kimball, "an invigorating blend of analytic lucidity, mordant
humor, and an amount of common sense too great to be called
'common.'" Against the Idols of the Age brings together a
representative selection of Stove's writing and is an ideal
introduction to his work.
The book opens with some of Stove's most important attacks on
irrationalism in the philosophy of science. He exposes the roots of
this fashionable attitude, tracing it through writers like Paul
Feyerabend and Thomas Kuhn to Karl Popper. Stove was a born
controversialist, so it is not surprising that when he turned his
attention to contemporary affairs he said things that are
politically incorrect. The topical essays that make up the second
part of the book show Stove at his most withering and combative.
Whether the subject is race, feminism, the Enlightenment, or the
demand for "non-coercive philosophy", Stove is on the mark with a
battery of impressive arguments expressed in sharp, uncompromising
prose. Against the Idols of the Age concludes with a generous
sampling of his blistering attacks on Darwinism.
David Stove's writings are an undiscovered treasure. Although
readers may disagree with some of his opinions, they will find
itdifficult to dismiss his razor-sharp arguments. Against the Idols
of the Age is the first book to make the full range of this
important thinker available to the general reader.
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