From: Paul Turner (paul@turnerbc.co.uk)
Date: Wed Aug 31 2005 - 09:14:57 BST
Platt,
>> Paul: Quite the opposite. Based on the principle that all truth is
>> provisional, one says to students, "We think that these are the best
>> intellectual patterns our culture has to offer - you be the judge." I'm
>> surprised you think this screws people up as it is surely a key principle
>> behind developing a culture of individual thinkers confident in their own
>> ability to respectfully challenge the static intellectual achievements of
>> their predecessors.
>
>Surely you jest. The best intellectual pattern our culture has to offer,
>little Leah, is that 2 plus 2 equals 4. But, you be the judge. If you say
>2 plus 2 equals 5, that's perfectly OK. You get a gold star for
>respectfully challenging the static intellectual achievements of your
>predecessors.
Paul: Oh come on Platt, must we play this game? I'm not talking about
asking 8 year olds to revise the number system.
Think of all your beliefs in a web, in the middle are the ones you will
never spend a second of your life doubting, towards the edge are the ones
that you aren't so certain of but were taught in good faith anyway - e.g.
the universe started as a singularity, the universe is composed of nothing
but mass and energy, values are subjective etc.
I'm talking about those patterns at the edge which scientists and artists
and writers challenge, overturn, develop and extend - not elementary
arithmetic. If these patterns are taken as 'absolute' then intellectual
progress is over.
>You can't be serious. I know it's fun to pick on Christian education, but
>your "provisional" view is quite ridiculous.
Paul: I am serious, and I was trying to have a serious conversation with
you but it seems you have no patience for anything these days, preferring
instead to take the easy option of lapsing into mockery of positions nobody
actually holds.
It wasn't 'Christian education' I was picking on; it was the ACE system, as
an extreme example of what we are left with when there is an absence of
'provisional truth' in education.
Perhaps next time you can ask some more questions before offering your
denouncement.
Regards
Paul
"If Quality or excellence is seen as the ultimate reality then it becomes
possible for more than one set of truths to exist. Then one doesn't seek
the absolute "Truth." One seeks instead the highest quality explanations of
things WITH THE KNOWLEDGE THAT IF THE PAST IS ANY GUIDE TO THE FUTURE THIS
EXPLANATION MUST BE TAKEN PROVISIONALLY; as useful until something better
comes along." [LILA, p114]
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