Greetings,
DLT, Re: Bennett. Now I find that he is an existentialist all becomes clear. As I'm sure I have
pointed out before, existentialism insisted upon an irreducible subjectivity. Along with its radical
counterpart, logical positivism, it can be accused of sustaining the mythical, "rift between
ourselves and the cosmos." But even Sartre and Heidegger eventually conceded that this is not the
case and, while both existentialism and logical positivism have been very powerful forces this
century, neither could be considered mainstream and both are rejected by almost every contemporary
philosopher (87 year old American professors aside, or did he, as I suspect, write that a few
decades ago?). Philosophy is like statistics. If you want to prove a position you can always find
someone to cite in support but, as with statistics, you need to look carefully at the context within
which it was formulated. Thank you for clearing that one up for me, I thought it was going to be
more of a challenge than it was.
The rest of your posting, DLT, was one of those regrettable, unthinking and silly diatribes which
completely mis-represent what I have written:
DLT summed up my words very badly:
"The MoQ is superfluous, irrelevant, irrational, and suggesting that quality, morality, good, and
value are basic parts of reality is equivalent to the length of ones rectum and the contents
therein."
I didn't say that, or even anything that could be reasonably construed as meaning that
DLT invents a plea from me:
"Your plea for metaphysical words without "the unwanted baggage" would leave us speechless. All
words
carry baggage. Would you have us construct " the most broad and general statements about reality"
that hopefully satisfy Poincare's plea, " of being understandable by a child of five" only in
newly created words ? or better yet mathematical terms and formulae of arcane and alchemic
splendor ...? "
I made no such plea. I specifically referred to the unwanted baggage associated with the term
'quality.' That is one word and your critique is wholly facetious.
DLT:
GEEZ , and your point was ?"
Made very well. Sorry you missed it.
DLT:
"PS: Bye Struan, now that you've proved once again the Pirigism that "bad boyz are good" you can
revert to lurk. Maybe take in a peaceful soccer game."
???? Aw, now you've hurt my feelings. My mum told me about people like you. :-)
It is a shame you couldn't address my points properly David as I've always had much respect for your
arguments. Never mind, my mum told me why people do that too.
Struan
P.S. Do you see where Theo came from Roger? Questioning people's religion always was fraught with
danger and one has to be very careful lest they descend into fits of irrational angst. Ever gone
into a Catholic Church and announced the plain truth that Mary probably wasn't a virgin?
P.P.S. Scott, I liked your take in your last posting - and thanks, comfortable agreement never was
my strong point. :-)
------------------------------------------
Struan Hellier
< mailto:struan@clara.co.uk>
"All our best activities involve desires which are disciplined and
purified in the process."
(Iris Murdoch)
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