From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Wed May 14 2003 - 21:30:22 BST
Matt K:
> As an example of someone who you're begging the question over, take me: I
> think the entire notion of pre-rationality and trans-rationality is
> cumbersome, obtrusive, and not worth the time. I think a better way to
> describe rationality is as evolving with whatever community we are refering
> to. What was rational for the Greeks is different than what was rational
> for the 18th century French. Socrates and Solon would've had a fit if they
> heard the French liberals talking about private rights and independence.
> It would've sounded irrational. However, to pre-empt everyone who's about
> to call me a relativist, this is not to say that we can't say, now in the
> 21st century, that our conception of rationality is better than their's.
> Or, rather, its a better fit for our context and we wouldn't trade our
> context for the ones in the past, though we'll surely trade our context for
> the hopeful ones in the future.
Talk about begging the question. How can you possibly know what was
rational for the Greeks wasn't rational for the 18th century French, or
that Socrates would've had a fit if he heard French liberals talk about
private rights and independence? Notions of how someone thought at
various times in various contexts amounts to little more than
guesswork. That goes for all "contexts" that pomos endlessly like to
refer to in their arguments because to know any context other than
one's own is the province of historians and fiction writers. Historians are
most noted for their disagreements and, in a few cases, plagiarism,
while fiction writers are, well, writers of fiction. The one context you can
say something about without fear of contradiction or begging the
question is the one inside your head. The rest is divination.
Platt
"Lila's battle is everybody's battle, you know?" (29)
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