I won’t. I could prepare a lengthy post on how he intentionally distorted what I wrote about taboos in elite universities like Harvard, or take him to task for a cheap insult, and so forth, but I’ll instead quote what Leiter himself has written to show why it’s not worth responding to him, and why no one should take anything of substance he writes on his blog seriously (though his rankings are always fun):
I am sometimes presented with the following criticism: “Your rhetorical style won’t persuade anyone who doesn’t already agree with you.” That is no doubt true, but, as we’ve just remarked, it is quite rare to persuade anyone by a careful, reasoned argument–indeed, so rare, that I don’t see it as worth the effort to try to do so on a blog….
In any case, my goal in posting on various political topics is simply to alert like-minded readers to ideas and evidence and arguments which help strengthen their convictions regarding the truths they’ve already understood or glimpsed, as well as to give some expression to our collective outrage and dismay. I really wish that the unlike-minded folks would simply “go away” and read something else.
A real credit to academic discourse, that. I prefer to engage with bloggers who do try to make careful, reasoned arguments.
[Inadvertently left comments on, but I can’t moderate now, so I’m turning them off.]
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