A short CRITICAL History of Philosophy (Chapter 27)
Who Was Eric Hoffer, The "longshoreman Philosopher"?
While post-war trends in continental philosophy were making their way into American colleges and universities, the United States produced its two greatest philosophers. Both are ignored by the academy. I think it’s a safe bet that not a single class is being taught in our country on the work of either man, and I would guess that not more than ten classes include their writings in the curriculum. Yet if philosophy is the study of wisdom and if we are to make the seemingly minimal demand that it should be based not on conjecture but evidence, then these two writers were the greatest commentators on politics and society to appear within the field since Alexis de Tocqueville.
The second is alive, and according to the tenets of contemporary liberalism he is uniquely qualified to present us with understanding as he grew up black and poor. Though this “lived experience” is alleged to be an indisputable source of wisdom, it appears to not be so in his case. I am speaking of Thomas Sowell. His crime against the intelligentsia is that he has not adopted their beliefs or their methods.
Neither man was trained as a philosopher. Sowell is an economist. The background and professional experience of Eric Hoffer was far stranger, and his origins remain a subject of dispute. All that can be said definitively is that when he first reached public notice he was a longshoreman, and that he had previously worked as a miner and fruit-picker.
Eric Hoffer: The Longshoreman Philosopher
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