Ideas Have Consequences - Epistemology and Approach

Epistemology and Approach

Weaver's philosophy shares an epistemological orientation with some forms of existentialism in that it posits that the axioms underlying all human belief systems are ultimately arbitrary (in the sense that they cannot be derived, or anchored in something anterior) and are thus a product of the exercise of ultimate choice rather than empirical evidence.

Weaver thus bases his attack against nominalism on historical analogy and the teleological implications, or "consequences" of such a world view.

It is important, however, to distinguish this approach from that of historicism, which contends that history develops in organic, deterministic cycles. Weaver emphasizes his position that the cause of apparent patterns in the decline of civilizations is recurrent, unintelligent choice.