
First the 'almost' part. I may be wrong here, but I humbly think that the author was to harsh on Descartes. I am not a big fan of this French philosopher, and I agree that Descartes' method was far from flawless. I think Hume would deserve the place instead of Descartes, because it is precisely he who allegedly divorced West from miraculous. Descartes at least acknowledged substance dualism, which is comforting.
Furthermore, since my roots are Ukrainian, the article cited about Ukrainian women selling fetuses to make rich women prettier is very saddening. I simply wanted to say that there are different people in all societies, and if you consider the amount of light a culture has, plus the economic condition of a country, it is not surprising, but sad. On the other hand, if you consider the number of seminaries in US, the number of available resources, the accessibility of those resources, and the economic condition of a country, Anglo-American culture does not forces me to rejoice either. Other saddening fact, is the enormous number of humans being trafficked [thousands and thousands every year] from the eastern Europe to the west... [not vice versa] as a sex slaves. This is the world we live in...
Anyways, I personally like this book a lot. Here you will see the true face of the 'great books', the historical connection between the ideas, and of course the applied part of ethics and philosophy. The person who distinguishes philosophy from practice is either naive, or brainwashed. Ideas have always led actions. And bad ideas, led to bad action. This book very cleverly exposes the danger of some very influential books born out of 'enlightenment'. These books, and more precisely their ideas, are like intellectual viruses that will ruin everything they come in contact with. Wiker provided very much needed antidote nowadays. Especially when 'new' atheists want to trick you to accept their silly lie that atheism is better, and more peaceful (?! say what?) than Christianity, books like this will wake you up to the cold reality of how science has and is manipulated and played as a particular ideology wants (i.e. Darwinism). Furthermore, it is applied part of those ideas, historically tested - not simply hypothetically, that leads to to think - 'How in right mind people could slip those rotten ideas in their minds, and popularized them under the disguise of science".
Specifically, I liked Wiker's take on:
(1.) Margaret Mead's "Coming of Age in Samoa"
(2.) Alfred Kinsey's "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male"
(3.) Hobbes' "Leviathan"
(4.) Sigmund Freud's "The Future of an Illusion"
(5.) Margaret Sanger's "The Pivot of Civilization"
(6.) Jean, Jacques Rousseau's "A Discourse Upon The Origin And The Foundation Of The Inequality Among Mankind"
(7.) Charles Darwin's "The Descent of Man"
I liked those the most, because of following:
(a.) In light of today's sexual mess, sickening practices, and overall decline of overall human morality, it is hard to pinpoint texts that led to it.
(b.) Nietzsche, Marx, and Machiavelli are clearly dangerous and most people know about them. Not many knows about perverts like Kinsey, and 'scientists' like Mead or Sanger.
(c.) You may read more about dangers of Darwin, Marx, Lenin, Machiavelli by other authors. Not many take on those mentioned in this book.
I can only hope that there will be more books like this.
This is the second book I read [actually I listened to this one on CD while driving] by Benjamin Wiker, and I plan to read more. The other one was also good check it out if you liked this one - Answering the New Atheism: Dismantling Dawkins' Case Against God
P.S. One reviewer noted that Kinsey contributed little. But, with all respect, I have to disagree. Check for instance DVD The Kinsey Syndrome for more information. From the perverts and immortals like Kinsey today we have some wild thing going on in regard to human sexuality. Those perverts helped to dress their sick ideas as 'science', and it wasn't the end of it. As a result pedophiles for instance do not spent long in jails, which is weird (isn't it?). Many laws and ideas are influenced by that sick man. Please watch video mentioned above. You can also check out book by Judith A. Reisman - Kinsey: Crimes and Consequences: The Red Queen and the Grand Scheme
Buy 10 Books That Screwed Up the World: And 5 Others That Didn't Help!