But I am a relativist and happy to defend it ;) I am also a sceptic and a nihilist (in the precise sense of the term). Any specific position, such as humanism or socialism, any particular theism, involves a belief system of some kind. This removes one¹s capacity to consider everything as up for grabs...
As an artist I feel obliged to question everything. The main fault in Rob¹s argument is that it is premised on moral absolutism...at its centre there stands a sacred cow. I haven¹t seen all the details of the original call to protest against Bloomberg. However, I think he is a valid target. There are also other valid targets. Tony Blair¹s work as a so-called mediator in the Middle-East has been so biased he should also be a target although I¹d like to see him done for war-crimes elsewhere first. After that we can throw the book at him for his current hypocrisy. Regards Simon On 20/2/09 18:32, "mark cooley" <[email protected]> wrote: >> > Do you know what a "straw man" argument is? >> > It's where someone argues >> > against a caricature of someone else's argument rather >> > than against >> > that argument itself. You are doing that here. > > You replied to Simon's criticism of your claim to know truth and your reaction > was against relativism NOT in support of your claim to know truth, but to > attack relativism. Simon never brought up relativism. That's the straw man > you've put up! Defend your own argument that somehow you have access to > absolute truth rather than bashing Simon for something that he didn't say. > Simon wasn't making a case for relativism he was questioning absolute truth. > That is not the same thing. One can not believe in absolute truth and also NOT > be a relativist. It's easy. Much of so-called postmodern theory explains the > basis for this quite well. You want names of authorities - I could list them > all day - what difference would it make? You'd just quote others to refute it. > What's the point? It's clear we have different values on these issues. Simon Biggs Research Professor edinburgh college of art [email protected] www.eca.ac.uk www.eca.ac.uk/circle/ [email protected] www.littlepig.org.uk AIM/Skype: simonbiggsuk Edinburgh College of Art (eca) is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC009201
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