Doctors of Modernity

Book excerpt: What, often obscured by the commentaries they inspired, did Darwin, Marx, and Freud actually assert? What in the end did they withdraw? Here, in one well documented book, are concise and accurate statements of doctrine whose impact on the modern world can hardly be exaggerated. In Doctors of Modernity R. F. Baum, whose work has been applauded by thinkers as diverse as Sir Karl Popper and the late P. A. Sorokin, provides critical assessments of Darwinism, Marxism, and Freudianism in the light of empirical fact and logic. So doing, Baum uncovers in their propositions a denigration of mind and reason that undercuts the same propositions' claims to rationality and truth. Baum traces this irrationalism to Darwin's, Marx's, and Freud's common naturalism or atheism. Pointing out, perhaps to the reader's surprise, that what is most convincing in Darwinism, Marxism, and Freudianism was anticipated long ago in the teaching of Doctors of the Church, Baum's conclusion argues briefly for reconsideration of non-sectarian theism. A substatial contribution to this generation's re-thinking of fundamental issues, Doctors of Modernity will prove invaluable to college students and reflective adults.