Hi David Lind, Jon and Elephant:
Your questions about absolute truth show that I’ve failed to make my
position clear. Let me give it another try.
DAVID
I don't deny that there is an "ultimate truth", I just don't think we can
access it intellectually. As far as what term we use...doesn't much
matter me. Whatever term we come up with seems like an intellectual
construct and therefore not able to fully embrace whatever absolute
truth is anyway.
Absolute truth is indeed an intellectual construct as is logic,
mathematics, science, philosophy and our conversations on this site.
“Ultimate truth” is also an intellectual concept. But they have different
meanings. Ultimate truth points to the unknown while absolute truth
points to the known, i.e. the concept of truth that is implicit in declarative
statements such as the one you end your posts with, “It’s all good.” By
absolute truth I’m referring to the truth of A is A, a cat is cat, not a dog,
you are David, not Goliath.
Platt wrote:
No scientist I know of (or for that matter any human being with a
modicum of sense) will deny the absolute truth of the Holocaust. Or of
deaths caused by AIDS. Or the danger of standing on the tracks in front
of an oncoming train. Life is lived in a sea of absolutes, beginning with
birth and ending with death.
ELEPHANT:
Yes. Just wondered: Could you possibly read "absolute certainties" for
"absolute truths"? Your views on what might be at stake here would be
welcome.
Yes, in the contexts I’ve been using, “absolute truths” means the same
as “absolute certainties.” My emphasis, however, since this is a site
about philosophy, has been on the absolute truths required by logic
and rational discourse. A logical axiom asserts a concept that must be
used in the process of denying it. For example, one cannot deny
absolute truth without appealing to absolute truth; one cannot deny
values without asserting a value. These axioms among others form the
basis of reason on which philosophy, indeed human life itself, depend.
JON:
Does my denial of Absolute Truth automatically place me in league
with the hard-core postmodern people you mentioned? Does it
automatically make me an immoral person?
I’m not here to judge you or anyone else. We present our views in the
hope of mutual enlightenment. Nor do I believe in political correctness
where what one believes, rather than what he does, becomes grounds
for censure or punishment. But If you were to murder somebody and
use as a defense “There are no absolute truths” then yes, I would
consider you immoral. (Your lawyer would, following such a claim, no
doubt cop a plea of insanity, and rightly so.)
JON:
Platt, you have seen from previous recent posts that I agree with you
about the dangers of embracing irrationality, and I'm not a
"postmodernist." You and I both note the growing proliferation of
immorality in our popular culture and we're both (I assume) slightly
disturbed by it. You seem to think the leaders of the postmodern
movement are the cause. I think the cold-hearted Objectivism
advocated by the works of Ayn Rand has had more of an impact than
all of the postmodernists put together. Can we find some common
ground?
On the dangers of embracing irrationality and the proliferation of
immorality in our culture we are “absolutely” on common ground. (-: As
for the cause I think Pirsig puts his finger on it as well as anybody:
PIRSIG:
The Hippie rejection of social and intellectual patterns left just two
directions to go: toward biological quality and toward Dynamic Quality.
The revolutionaries of the sixties thought that since both are antisocial,
and since both are anti-intellectual, why then they must both be the
same. That was the mistake. (LILA, Chap. 24)
The reason postmodernism is more of threat than Ayn Rand is that the
former has permeated the humanities in most every U.S. college.
Rand is personna non grata in academe; you won’t find a course
devoted to her philosophy in any major liberal arts college. But cultural
studies, feminist studies, gay studies, African studies—all of which
cater to the postmodernist dogma of truth dependent on power—are
everywhere. As such I consider it a far greater danger.
Platt
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