David B,
I did the same net search on "failure of the enlightenment" and found
similar results. As you mentioned in one of your mailings, much of
the attacks on the enlightenment are from social reactionaries
(new-age, creationists, Christians), but also from postmodernists
discrediting the notion of objective knowledge. I guess I
consider pomos intellectuals (but ones I have no use for). Also from
the academic camp are folks who think the application of reason to
morality failed. This last one accounted for most of the hits. I could
find none that complained specifically of the deterioration of morals
in a society by the effects of "amoral scientific objectivity" (a
search on "amoral scientific objectivity" itself turned up 30 matches,
ALL from moq.org mailing list archives).
One of the reasons for the relatively high hit-rate of this phrase is
that it matches MacIntyre's popular phrase: "the failure of the Enlightenment
project". The high hit-rate could otherwise be attributed either to
genuine popular sentiment on the matter, or to the nature of
people to voice criticism over approval generally. I searched on
google for "failure of christianity" and got 672 hits. For "success
of christianity" I got 509 hits (a low total since "success" should
account for "benefits" as well as "popularity", the latter of which
is indisputable). Searching for "benefits of christianity" yeilded
only 285 hits.
Glenn
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