[SGVLUG] Off-topic - Hans Reiser article - murder trial

[Rae Yip]

Hi Dustin,

You made a lot of good points, which help clarify your original
paragraph. I thank you for taking the time to write this. I suggested
private discussion merely because it might not interest everyone on
this list, or even in this thread.

I only have time to briefly address the main conundrum you posed. I
have heard similar hypotheses about how our society is degenerating
because what might be called "reason-based ethics" inherited from the
Greeks is ceding ground to religion.

What Socrates said about good and evil was contradictory: while he may
have claimed that much (I'm not sure about all) evil is done out of
ignorance, he also said that he wasn't sure virtue could be taught,
that it may just be something we're born with.

While paradoxical, I think both these statements may be true to some
degree. Evolutionary and behavioural psychology has indeed shown us
that most people are more honest than they should need to be.

More importantly, Socrates knew enough to say that he didn't know much
at all; he was much more interested in finding the answer than giving
one. This lead him down the path of questioning the supposed truths of
his time.

I think as a society we've lost our way from that ideal. Part of this
may simply be because modern society involves far more interactions
than even in the previous century; our current system of discovering
truth hasn't been scaling.

One may be tempted, because of parallels with other patterns of
spreading religious fervor, to lay the blame on foolish Greeks bearing
ideas. But I think it we owe it to ourselves recognise that the best
of what we are today is still from the best of what was then.

That drive to search for truth, to know the world for what it is
rather than what you wish it be, can also be a powerful force. Though
it might be undervalued today since we were lucky to get easy answers
for a staggering number of questions, we should still cherish that
drive. To do otherwise, might be to truly succumb to unreason. :)

-Rae.

P.S. All this is not to refute your points about the current political
quagmire of public education, but to say that we need to value the
power of reason (while being reasonable about it) more than ever.

P.P.S. I'll bump up C.S. Lewis' Abolition on my reading queue, but
what do you think of Olaf Stapledon's philosophy? And Confucianism?

On Wed, Jul 9, 2008 at 6:11 PM, Dustin Laurence <dustin at laurences.net> wrote:
[too many good points to keep track of]
> The irony of modern society is that in busily rejecting every trace of
> Christianity, it makes itself ever more fertile ground for religions
> that it will like far less and that will (if true to exactly the
> principles that made them attractive) burn out every trace of the
> society which welcomed it.
>
> I'm going to stop now.
>
> | ...I'll be happy to discuss this
> | privately with you.
>
> Hmm, OK, but why? I made a target of myself publicly, and just made
> myself an even bigger target publicly, why be private now? :-)
>
> Dustin
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