Field of Gourds: A Guide to Intellectual Rebellion - Softcover

Fisher, Robert M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1479156493 ISBN 13: 9781479156498

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2012

Synopsis

Intellectual, geeky, and highly creative, Field of Gourds: A Guide to Intellectual Rebellion is presented as a dialogue between Rob Fisher with his dog, Bella. They explore the nature of rationality and discuss how, as a society, we are on the verge of losing what constitutes the foundation of individual and spiritual freedom. The author argues that most people are trapped in an intellectual prison, consuming ideas and culture like they are eating macaroni and cheese their mothers cooked for them. Believing knowledge—culture, art, science, and religion—are consumables meant to be received from others, they might find some interesting, others boring, but they never think of exploring for themselves. In other words, they fail to wield their own intellectual prowess. They do not construct knowledge, or even realize that they have an active and critical role to play in building their own understanding of things. Rather than take responsibility for what they think, believe, or feel, they passively digest other people’s visions of the world, and in the cacophony of viewpoints that characterize modern life, they wonder why they are left feeling confused with no sense of purpose. As it entertains, inspires, and challenges the reader, this book romps through some big ideas on the interrelationships among science, economics, technology, politics, democracy, religion, and theater and suggests how one should navigate the modern world. A unique cross between the self-help genre and philosophy of science, it shows how to free your mind from false traps and actively engage in creative and collaborative projects with those around you in order to manifest your full capabilities and achieve ultimate happiness. It could even change your life.

About this title

About the Author

Rob Fisher graduated from Gonzaga High School in Washington DC, where he broke his leg playing football on the opening kick-off of senior year. He was a wrestler at Duke University, although not particularly good at it. He received a PhD in economics from Duke and a law degree from Harvard Law School (magna cum laude). He worked as a gas station attendant and a motel clerk, labored on a tobacco and cattle farm, taught at a number of colleges and universities, clerked for a federal judge, and toiled at a consulting firm, various law firms, and for the government. He was also a volunteer fireman. His avocation—along with his brother—is the collection and restoration of antique fire trucks, although his brother is the brains behind the operation. He is the very proud father of four. His dog and co-author of Field of Gourds is named Bella and is more trouble than you can imagine.

From Kirkus Reviews

With his dog, Bella, serving as muse, questioner and devil’s advocate, Fisher aims to generate a new way of thinking about science, politics, economics and religion. Fisher (Logic of Economic Discovery, 1986) begins by warning readers about the radical nature of his book, which encourages an intellectual rebellion against the siren song of social conditioning. “History is chock full of stories of those who have been shunned and punished for...thinking differently,” he cautions. This admonition may cause some readers to assume that the book will overflow with angry, anarchistic railings at all social convention. Such is not the case. With a Ph.D. in economics from Duke University and a degree from Harvard Law School, Fisher is well equipped to discuss the power and process of intellectual discovery. Although he uses a light, conversational tone, with frequent interruptions from Bella that are alternately amusing and annoying, it’s a weighty subject. Drawing examples from Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Karl Marx and other well-known thinkers, he systematically explores the role of science and its relationship to truth. Ideally, Fisher writes, science is a process. Conjecture should be constructively criticized; this criticism should engender more conjecture and, ultimately, new growth in understanding. This cycle of examining ideas requires an intellectual courage that, Fisher argues, is on the decline; the loss of such courage sets us on a path of blindly following self-appointed experts who gradually rob us of our liberties simply by creating a dependency on their so-called “rational” expert opinions. Intellectual rebellion, however, is not reserved for science alone. Fisher further applies this same process in his analysis of a wide range of topics—capitalism, economics, politics, race and religion. Paralleling Marx’s views on class consciousness, Fisher presents a rational, thorough analysis of modern thinking: Modern “experts”—those who believe they are the best qualified to determine what is rational and ultimately true—“mistake their own interests for a set of universal values.” Anyone who thinks otherwise is inherently irrational, and it’s this suppression of individual thought and discovery that will be this century’s greatest struggle. Offers an exciting path for escaping intellectual ruts. Kirkus

Edition details

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1479156493
• ISBN 13: 9781479156498
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 390