Steve, Matt, DMB, > Matt said: > it is good for is telling us that people like Harris are full of it when they > say that they have the key, the answer we've been waiting for--finally, now > we can do ethics as it was meant to be done. > > dmb says: > I don't think Harris is offering anything like "the answer we've been waiting > for". Usually, "arrogant" is just what we call guys who make us feel stupid. >
To be fair Matt was guessing a bit, and it was Platt who called Harris arrogant. His language is strident, could sound arrogant, (put me off to start with) but from what I can see his main claim is that a key, an impediment to be unlocked, in answering what ethics really should be is to break free from faith-based morals ... As far as I can see he doesn't offer the missing answer to what reason / rational ethics really are ... and he does distinguish between reason and rationality... but he is breaking down a barrier to wider consideration of that, rather than offering "the answer". BTW Steve - I've found the "nuke the bastards" reference in the book. It's at the end of the "The Problem with Islam" chapter. (Haven't got the text to hand). He's talking about pre-emptive nuclear strikes against the increased risk of terrorist WMD's, but to be fair whilst using the "high-risk" language in his argument (which demands attention) his argument recognises the risks and caveats in his "suggestion" for the sake of argument. The "nuke the bastards" straw-man rhetoric was someone (scurrilously) criticising Harris in response to Sue Blackmore's recommendation of End of Faith - misled me originally. The problem of "discrete" social and intellectual "levels" that Matt alludes to - that DMB cannot see how to resppnd to - is surely the recurring one many of us has about distinguishing the social and intellectual in any useful definitive way. We all recognise the extreme - authoritarian vs free-reasoning ends of the spectrum - but in the vast middle ground of real life what passes for intellectual reasoning is socially conditioned / co-evolved / entangled. Regards Ian Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
