Streams of Confusion: Thirteen Great Ideas That Are Contaminating Our Thought and Culture

Scott, a professor of English, humanities and communication at Golden Gate University in San Francisco, Calif., sets himself an ambitious task in this book: to trace the roots of modern ethical relativism back to 13 influential thinkers and to show how their philosophies and ideologies have led to our modern moral chaos. ""What if,"" he posits, ""most of our modern philosophical and literary authorities aren't heroes but villains, not benefactors of humanity but destroyers of civilization?"" Armed with that question, Scott examines the key ideas of Hobbes, Hume, Rousseau, Mill, Darwin, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Bertrand Russell, Sartre, B.F. Skinner and Aldous Huxley, as well as a group of contemporary theologians, to see how they have influenced the modern mind. The result is a jeremiad rooted in the history of ideas that focuses on ""trickle-down ideonomics,"" the effect of these thinkers on how modern people think about their lives and values. The brooks formed from their flawed ideas, asserts Scott, join together to form ""the mighty river of ethical relativism."" The only solution for our culture, the author believes, is a return to the values of biblical Christianity. He concludes, therefore, with a defense of the Christian Scriptures as the only reliable source for ethical values. Scott's book will do little to convince anyone not already predisposed to his position, but it will undoubtedly be welcomed for its explanatory insights by those who are of like mind regarding the effects of ethical relativism. (Apr.)