The Counsel of Trent

writing is thinking

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

The Life Akratic: Crank Has Rusty Drive Belt

The particular akrasia today is my inability to resist the opportunity to say "No way!" to the injunction to "Grow up!" by a cranky old fart who probably did his growing up when the space program was throwing rocks at the moon.

I have no idea who this joker is--I have a service that searches for references to me on the web and it trolled up this troll--but I was mightily entertained by his asnide to me.

He apparently likes neither arguments nor footnotes, but hey, I'll do philosophy my way and he can do it his way, I'm all for diversity!

He seems to concede that naturalism doesn't have any answers, which is handy. I'm not sure about the rhetorical strategy of admitting your opponent is right, right in the middle of the post, but then, like I said, I'll blog my way and he can blog his way!

But then (you'd better send the kids into the other room, it gets a bit dirty) he plays his ace in the hole. He says that inferences are no good anyway, their just...(are the little ones in the kitchen yet?)..."magic" [boo's and jeer's, tomatoes fly].

Well, gosh, I have no reply to that, I guess he's got me. Who am I to challenge the inference rule Magic Ponens:

1. If Larry has no good arguments, Larry must use weasel words like "magic".
2. Larry has no good arguments.
3. Thus, Larry must use weasel words like "magic".

I suppose if that's been working for him, he might as well stick to it, it's a well-worn path by his naturalist heros.

Well, that's about enough time wasted, maybe someone will send him a can of WD-40 and his rusted-shut mind will creak open.

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Sunday, July 04, 2010

I want to suffer, you want to suffer, we all want to suffer.


"But what if we don't want to suffer?"

Everyone, I think, wants, ultimately, to suffer, because, I think, everyone, ultimately, wants the highest degree of pleasure (and this comes only from virtue).

But, as Augustine said, "Not yet..."

I don't, yet, really want what I really really want.


Blame it on Schleiermacher

It's all his fault. This guy is the worst thing that ever happened to religious thought.


There are some people who seem to think it's always been this way.