Matthew Newsham Says: February 22nd, 2007 at 10:27 am Have we given up hope that philosophy can be useful? Aristotle created a TOE- he came up with a powerful formalized system of logic that couldn’t be ignored by Christians of the West. Aquinus eventually even incorporated many of those concepts into the thinking of his era. Yes, maybe there is some hubris bound into all this- but what is good, true, and beautiful will continue to be refined in any case. We have to remember that we aren’t talking about any one man or idea here, but the sum total movement of all human understanding. Language, logic, values, calculations- these are all things that will continue to be effected by the overarching “meta” diolauge we are participating in today. Don’t slide into the trap of the green meme- most people’s condition on earth is still far too miserable for us to put up our hats and just think about ourselves. Don’t slide back into some premodern justifications for the state of things-
Stand and fight to move humanity forward towards the good and the true! A person in conflict has to assume that his every action will be effective in winning his battle. He has to be attentive to them and trust them, and as necessary let them go- but he can never give up hope of succeeding.
Matthew Newsham Says: February 22nd, 2007 at 7:25 pm Yea, Aristotle might not have been the best example of a TOE in terms of his reservations about the issue of perfect forms… But then, at its core, Ken’s work isn’t about promoting the abstract dreams of the idealist. I think its entirely pragmatic- and in that sense he share’s something of a “Sophist”-ic attitude, of which Aristotle was probably the next incarnation. (Someone who knows more about that than me may argue that point). I was just pointing out that creating all-encompassing metatheories can produce great results… the next big break after Augustine as near as I can tell.
And yes, I think raising this issue of “arrogance” is kinda green- NOT the issue of making clarifications, which I was just advocating myself a post or two back.I guess I assume that anyone worth their spit won’t be intimidated by a title. -GO full out, I say.
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