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August 31, 2004
A quote from Ramond Gaita
"Cynicism, if it has not descended into nihilism, is often a species of thoughtlessness, and thoughtlessness as pervasive as the kind that shows itself in cynicism is not in the end a deficiency of intellectual skills, not at any rate, of the kind that can be taught in the way logic can be taught. We can teach people to reason better. Logic in schools would be a good idea. But we cannot teach them to use those logical abilities in the service of truth rather than to win arguments, or to refine capacities for self-deception."
I found so much of academia like that.
We can rework what Gaita is saying. Logic in schools may be a good idea, but criitcal thinking would be even better. But we can teach them to use those logical abilities to affirm life rather than to win arguments.
Truth needs to linked to, and placed in the service of, the values of the good life.
It is difficult to do since many of those people committed to reason (science) had such thin skins that they savaged one another at an attempt to debate issues seriously. They were often so emotional and outraged. Philosophical differences became personal and bitter.
They, in my experience, were usually the positivists or the Marxists who defended the ethos of the enlightnenment.
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