[lit-ideas] Re: The Educational Value of Slips of the Whatever
- From: "Richard Henninge" <RichardHenninge@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2009 08:03:20 +0200
Donal provides the last words of every happy lawyer:
as they burnt him at the stake it was clear his argument had won
How does a lawyer ever improve or even seek to improve his arguments if he
can always "argue" that his argument "had won," even as his innocent client
is being led to the gallows or stake? What private criteria of evaluation is
Donal claiming as the universal measure of the quality of an argument?
Is light a wave or a particle? Present your arguments. Donal McEvoy will
tell you which argument wins. Clearly.
I submit that there can never be a so-called "valid" argument for either
position on this question of fact. Perhaps valid arguments may be proposed
for questions like "Is it better to get up early or late in the morning?"
Popper, I assume, however, is more interested in questions of fact like "Is
the universe expanding?" And for that there are good and less good
arguments, but no "valid" arguments. The validity of arguments about facts
can only be judged by Laplace's Demon or a similarly omniscient entity.
Richard Henninge
University of Mainz
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