On 13 Nov 2007 at 15:49, Gilberto Simpson wrote:
thanks for the quote Gilberto. In the context, what Feyerabend said
makes sense. "Everything goes" probably *could* be defended in any
context at all -- which is not to say that it would be meaningful or
worth defending in any context. A truth claim's usefulness decreases
as its universal defensibility increases. His point seems to be that
as soon as we try even an elementary limitation of the set of "what
goes," it is a contextual selection -- and while that selection may
"go" in one context it may not "go" in another. Perhaps I'm reading
more in than was there, but I understand this as more than just a
piece of throwaway provocation from Feyerabend.
Shoghi Effendi says that Baha'u'llah's "mission" was "to proclaim
that religious truth is not absolute but relative" (this is in his
introduction to the 1938 and 1955 editions of World Order of
Baha'u'llah). I wondered what led Shoghi Effendi to identify this as
the central proclamation, the "mission" for Baha'u'llah. When we look
at how Baha'u'llah undertook his mission, there is quite a bit of
pricking the pretentions of people who purport to be the guardians of
an absolute and unchangeable truth, who are so certain that they are
closed to anything new, but I don't think this really represents his
"mission." I think Baha'u'llah worked much more by simply presenting
new truths that are so attractive that people accept them. As soon as
they do so, while not rejecting past truths, they have insensibly
acceeded to his mission. If *that* was true then, and *this* is now
also true, then *that* cannot have been absolute, but only partial.
Absolutisms hold their devotees captive, but frontal attack makes
them defend the prison as a fortress, and then you see straw man
arguments and striking out at the people who are symbols of change:
these are signs of a threatened identity. Sweet seduction is the
trick
Sen
> 3 FEYERABEND AND RELATIVISM
> In their declared opposition to relativism, Long (1990a 656,1993
> 230-1) and Beretta (1991 502-3) often engage in what I would call
> 'Feyerabend bashing* Two excerpts from their respective work make this
> point well Feyerabend , for example, argues that scientific beliefs
> are different from, not superior to, those of voodoo, magic, or
> religion, which are held with no less certainty by their believers
> Feyerabend's famous conclusion, of course, was There is only one
> principle that can be defended under all circumstances and in all
> stages of human development It is the principle anything goes (Long
> 1993 231)
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