P.199~P.206, From the writer, Robert E. Babe demonstrates George Grant's perspective by comparing his thoughts and other philosophers like Harold Innis, Dallas Smythe and C.B Macpherson.
1. Innis and Grant
Both Innis and Grant -Examined the evolution of societies from value-oriented or critical perspective and they made strong connections between societal evolution and technological change. -Warned us that society couldn't survive if, in Grant's word, it puts "its faith in techniques and not in wholeness". -Were against growing control over educational curricula by business interests and were shocked it is becoming our standard, which is narrow and technocratic. -Demonstrated conceptions of time by using different terminology. Grant's "time as history" = Innis's "space bias" Grant's "time as the moving image of an unchanging eternity"=Innis's space bias.
-Attacked liberalism. Innis criticized commodity exchange as an economic practice and was afraid that commodity exchange might replace other mode of interacting. On the other hand, Grant criticized commodification of human relations and agrees to `contractarianism' as both practice and a political philosophy.
Contractarianism is any of various theories that justify moral principles or political arrangements by appealing to a social contract that is voluntarily committed to under ideal conditions for such commitment.
-Were both deeply concerned that Canada is becoming depersonalized and alienating because of predominance of libertarian modes of thought and action. Grant wrote `When everything is made relative to profit-making, all traditions of virtue are dissolved, including that aspect of virtue known as love of country'.
Differences in Grant and Innis `Innis believed that properties of staples, in combination with geography and technology, influence human organization and human thought'.
Grant- `There was no notion of the material or phenomenal world being prior to the ideal such as God or gods, of existence, of justice, of goodness, of natural law, and of time'.
2. Dallas Smythe and George Grant Dallas Smythe -Born in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada in 1907. Died in 1992 -Finished his degree at the University of California, Berkeley, achieving his A.B. in Economics in 1928. Later that year, he entered the Ph.D. Economics program at Berkley, where he undertook a seven years thesis on the East San Francisco transit system. -Was a political activist and researcher who contributed to a political economy of communication.
Smythe shared many thoughts with Grant especially regarding mass media, technological change, and Canada-U.S. relations. However they have some different perspectives as well.
Smythe believed that Consciousness Industry was conforming human beings to the requirements of monopoly capitalism. However, Grant's were concerns that concerted effort cause people not only lose intimacy and their roots, but to become forgetful also of eternal or ontological questions.
Smyth-"Life is a continuous struggle between oppressor and victim". Grant- beyond the maniacal chaos of everyday existence, `there is order'. Both saw the quest for power as dominating society and pointed to the industrial arts (`technology') as a major means by which power is sought and exercised. Both saw technologies as controlling people's mind. They both were concerned about the hegemony exercised by the U.S. over Canada and the Canadian government's complicity in this dominance. Smythe believes that Canada became increasingly dependent upon the U.S. through film, broadcasting, telecommunications, spectrum management, the arts and sciences, and generally through `technology'. Grant demonstrated that "all countries and peoples, the American people included, are more or less willing victims of an oppressive and ultimately nihilistic mindset, a mindset he called `time as history.
3. C.B. Macpherson and Grant Crawford Brough Macpherson (1911 1987) was an influential Canadian political scientist who taught political theory at the University of Toronto.
Unlike Grant, Macpherson had no emphasize `common good'. Macpherson believes that socialism is required so that each individual could employ and develop their capacities and achieve their individual freedom. (Liberal point of view)
Notion of equality Macpherson-"Equality meant equal opportunity for people to develop their talents and express their skills. Grant-"it meant absolute equality before God."
Macpherson was eager to bring about the political/econo...