[lit-ideas] Re: Anti-Humanism & Its Enemies
- From: John Wager <john.wager1@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 18 Nov 2007 11:12:31 -0600
Mike Geary wrote:
No, I'm not talking about fads. I'm talking about beliefs. Beliefs
are all we have. We acquire our beliefs through our culture. On a
universal scale, no one belief has a more morally privileged standing
than any other, just as no culture has a more morally privileged
standing.
I doubt that any culture anywhere has actually believed this. That
makes you a unique thing, the ONLY human for whom your truth is not true.
The one thing that all cultures have in common is their interest in
comparing themselves with other cultures. Sometimes it's to gloat,
sometimes it's to improve. But both gloating and improving imply that
every culture sees some things about itself as better or worse than
another culture, and believes that there is some standard outside the
culture's current beliefs that can be used to judge that gloating or
improving.
What I have just written is not the Truth, it is a belief that there
is no such thing as Truth. That is not to say that there is no such
thing as truth. We hold to certain beliefs because we believe them to
be true. You may believe there is Truth out there, but until you can
prove it incontrovertibly, it's just another belief.
On this, I think we agree. Truth is the "end" of knowledge claims (or
beliefs, if you prefer), just as death is the "end" of life. We would
not be human if we actually possessed either one; it's the "on the way"
part that makes us human. But without either "Truth" or "death" we
wouldn't be making any kind of journey at all.
Those who believe that there is no Truth believe that as a truth, but
at the same time believe that it could possibly be erroneous and
would amend the belief, given incontrovertible evidence to the
contrary. But I can't imagine what kind of evidence could ever be
brought forth to prove some belief a Truth.
And I can't really believe a person could live without questioning at
least a few of their current beliefs, or the current beliefs of their
society. As soon as someone says "I don't think that the way us
Republicans, or us Democrats, or us Americans do things is necessarily
the best way," they are on a search for a better way. Societies change
because of this. That's the evidence you seek; we DO make changes in our
societies because of our search for "Truth."
--
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"Never attribute to malice that which can be
explained by incompetence and ignorance."
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John Wager john.wager1@xxxxxxxxxxx
Lisle, IL, USA
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